Horse racing and betting has been around for a very long time. Starting with Romans racing with chariots on their horses to modern-day mounted racing, it has been an industry that survived the test of time and converted to many games through the years. As blockchain games try to become the next big step in gaming, Photo Finish is a new project that aims to bring this old sport and merge it with the budding technology of Play-to-earn gaming. Although it isn’t the first of its kind in the space, let’s take a look at what Photo Finish can bring to the table (or stable).

Background

Photo Finish Live is a play-to-earn virtual horse racing game built in the Solana blockchain by Third Time Inc. that lets “real players” participate in races with horses that are based on true-to-life racehorses. This also translates to the breeding mechanics of the game which takes the horse’s DNAs and puts it in the simulation as well. The game is available now in its beta stage on PC and will be available on mobile devices in the future.

The game was released with 5,000 Generation Zero horses as its first NFT collection, each having unique traits that can be transferred to its foals that will repopulate the game’s marketplace.

Graphics and Gameplay

As the name suggests, the graphics for the game is trying to look like a photo-realistic horse race. Almost like a simulation we can see on official horse racing broadcasts such as the Triple Crown race which is broadcasted on NBC which the team is also responsible for.

Photo Finish steers away from horse racing games like Pegaxy which use RNG to determine winners but instead, it uses a couple of parameters to determine the winner of each race with advanced server-based simulations. There isn’t much gameplay to Photo Finish as you are just spectating after you place your bets. Players should be in the know if they want to take higher-chance bets by understanding the mechanics of the system that selects the victor of each race.

The system takes various factors into account, such as the weather, distance, track surface and condition. All of this on top of the compatibility of each horse on the specific track in a match as they each have their own preferences. There are horses that are better for shorter tracks with great bursts of speed in the first stretch of the furlong before falling off the longer the race goes on. There are also horses that excel in longer tracks and can run in circles for far longer.

The key is that you should always know each horse in a race before placing a bet on whichever one you think will meet most of the factors in a specific match.

Earning Mechanics

Photo Finish uses two tokens to drive all of the interactions in the game. $CROWN and $DERBY.

$CROWN is the governance token of the game with a fixed supply of 250,000,000. Owners of their PFP Collection get airdropped a certain amount that scales with its rarity every month and it will be the only way to purchase racetrack licenses that enables you to earn $DERBY.

$DERBY on the other hand is an inflationary token that acts as the game’s main utility token used in most of the transactions in the game like race entry, breeding, and stud fees. This can be earned by selling NFT Horses, participating in races, wagering, and more.

Final Thoughts

Although I’m not really big on horse racing and betting sports in general, I think that a racing game not relying on RNG helps incentivize players who are willing to take the extra mile and study the game they are playing. It also decreases the number of people buying into the game just expecting to make passive income and not thinking about their decisions.

With all games in the blockchain (even more so for a game that uses betting), be very extra careful of the decisions you make especially if you are planning to buy into the game. Always do your research on the horses in the matches you want to participate in to up your chances of selecting the colt who is most likely to win the race.

Overall, I think if you are a fan of horse racing or like betting on sports in general and want to dabble in blockchain gaming, I think Photo FInish may be a good place to start. The game doesn’t rely on RNG like past horse racing games so you may have to take extra steps in ensuring you are not losing much. Although I can’t see myself investing in Photo Finish as I’m not a part of its target market, I see it as a more balanced Pegaxy and I hope it flourishes in its niche