SBC News Davide Coppola - Vindicta Games - The world's first football betting simulation

Davide Coppola – Vindicta Games – The world’s first football betting simulation

Vindicta Games’ Sim Betting Football went live on the Google Play Store last week with an iOS version expected in July. 

Davide Coppola, Vindicta Games
Davide Coppola, Vindicta Games

SBC spoke to founder Davide Coppola about the launch and development of the world’s first ‘football betting simulation’ and his aim for it to become part of the burgeoning virtual sports offerings by bookmakers.

SBC: Currently the game is in virtual currency only, will you be introducing a real money element and why was the decision made not to include one from the get go?

Davide: Real money means real gambling and unfortunately Google doesn’t allow that in the Google Play store.

Sim Betting Football has been created to be a video game first and for that reason it’s now limited by the rules of the main digital markets.

Another reason is that entering the gambling scene is quite challenging and I believe that starting in the gaming world makes more sense for a new company, especially considering my own background is mostly in games.

However, things could well change in the future when we’ll have a bigger user base. If enough people express interest in playing with real money I would be happy to explore this opportunity.

SBC: It’s a novel idea, where did it come from? Your background is more in game development but is betting something you’ve been involved with in the past and who have you worked with to get things right on the wagering end?

Davide: I used to work on football simulation games and when I started Vindicta Games my original plan was to create a free to play football management game for mobile.

Soon I realised the genre was quite overcrowded and that the market was already dominated by a few big names. Competing with them would have been near impossible to start with, so I decided to go for something different.

I still wanted to create a football simulation game as that’s where my main experience and passion is. I started to think about the genre from different angles and to analyse the market to come up with something new.

During that process I found out millions play free mobile casino games, but there was not a football betting game. That ticked all the boxes and after some thorough market research I decided the project had potential.

I should probably mention that I’ve always had an interest in football betting, but I got more into it in the last 2 years, partially for market research and partially because I truly enjoy it!

Of course passion is not enough when something like gambling is involved. I had to study extensively to make things right on the betting side, but I can assure you that Sim Betting Football reproduces many techniques used by bookmakers, especially for odds computation.

It’s not been straightforward for sure, but I got an MSc in Computer Science and my academic background has helped me with the maths side a great deal.

SBC: The information states that you can bet on both matches and ‘other events’ in the game. What are these and how expansive are the wagering options?

Davide: At the moment there are 13 betting markets for matches and they are divided into five main groups: result, goals, half-time, corners and cards.

Future updates will introduce more betting markets for matches, but also for other events such as outright league results (winner, promotion, relegation) and players such as top scorer and best player.

The final goal is to introduce as many betting markets as possible in order to offer a true football betting experience to gamers.

SimBettingFootball#3

 

SBC: What elements are in place to ensure player retention, and can you explain some details about monetization?

Davide: At the moment the main strategies for player retention are not strictly in the game itself.

The first one will be frequent updates which is a must in the free gaming world. The second will be creating a strong presence on social media and online in general which should translate in loyal and involved users.

In-game strategies will be implemented in the future after analysing data collected during the first few weeks on the market, but it’s too soon to talk about these.

Regarding monetization the game is completely free to download, but it offers In-App Purchases to buy virtual coins, which are used to play the game and to unlock new content. Furthermore, gamers can optionally watch video ads to receive free virtual coins as reward. At the moment that’s the only advertising you can find in the game and I doubt that will ever change.

SBC: The game is closely aligned with tipster sites and in teaching people how to gamble. Will you be looking into partnerships with tipster sites, and indeed bookmakers down the line?

Davide: Yes, that’s something I will be considering in the future for sure, especially if real money will be introduced in a new version of the game.

Something like a sponsorship would be ideal, but my ultimate ambition is to see Sim Betting Football in the virtual sports offering of all the main bookmakers.

After all what they offer at the moment is something extremely limited and entirely based on luck. I am sure punters would prefer something more realistic. Only time will tell!

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