The saturation of gambling sites on the Web is a turnoff for the Net bettor who’s looking for a breath of fresh air. But this boundless pool of online gambling sites isn’t as stagnant as it may appear.
It’s easy to get consumed by redundancy amid the gambling portals and search engines that spit out clone after clone, but fear not. . . Variety does exist. Three more sites have been pulled into the spotlight for this week’s excursion beyond the cookie cutter.
Horsepower
Sounds like the rallying call for an equine comic book hero, but it’s actually a new Internet betting system that’s like no other. Amid a digital playground stocked with electronic versions of every type of gambling imaginable, where the latest and greatest concepts are reinvented on what seems like a daily basis, the Horsepower broadcasting network has made online race wagering about as virtual as it gets.
Players can use the Java-based online software to wager 24/7 on horse races that are missing one of racing’s traditional components: horses. Every 90 seconds Horsepower delivers online races featuring virtual horses. Customers can watch 14 e-horses e-race around an e-track and place a variety of e-wagers within Horsepower’s pari-mutuel betting system. You can bet as little as $2 or as much as $100,000 on one horse or up to six horses.
The site’s marquee attraction, the “Quick 6TM” bet, gives players a shot at winning a jackpot of at least $1 million with a $2 bet. The rules are simple. Six horses are randomly selected and if they finish in the right order, you walk with a fat wad of cash.
If you’re curious and undecided about playing the Singapore Online Casino real-money version, you can check out a Macromedia Flash demo version of the software at the site.
The Hollywood Stock Exchange
What is a budding technology company to do when there are simply no truly original products left to invent?
How ’bout creating a unique combination of already existing concepts?
Web sites that enable visitors to place wagers on happenings in the world of entertainment are steadily becoming more abundant, as are sites that offer stock market/commodity trading-style wagering. But to my knowledge, the only site that bundles both features into a single platform is the Hollywood Stock Exchange.
Currently a free-play betting site, HSX delivers a vast menu of wagers on music and movies in a market-style environment. Users can buy shares of their favorite actors, movies and music artists and watch their values rise or fall based on the success of their careers and personal lives. Plus, they can win some attractive prizes.
Insead of buying shares in companies, you can, say, purchase shares of an Oscar nominee or perhaps get in on an IPO for a new movie or CD.
Adding another flavor to the mix–as well as real-money wagering–is Cantor Index, HSX’s new owner. Cantor Index is a spread betting firm that, through its purchase of HSX, recently began offering wagers on movies and music.
Play121.com
Person-to-person (P2P) betting on the Internet is no longer a unique concept, but Play121.com has managed to add a few twists to this exciting new style of wagering.
In case the premise is foreign to you, P2P betting exchanges offer wagering minus the bookie. Instead of wagering against the house, you wager against other bettors. You can either post a proposition and wait for someone to take you up on it or shop through a list of propositions already posted. The house provides the platform, handles the funds and takes a small commission, but otherwise stays out of the equation.
Play121.com, somewhat of a newcomer on the scene, prides itself on offering what its creators consider the largest variety of P2P wagers available on the Internet, and its recent addition of a race betting system makes it the only web site to facilitate head-to-head wagering on races held at tracks throughout the United States.
The site’s operators have done a nice job of establishing a community by integrating a number of features outside its betting engine, including a tipster section, news and a chat room. They’ve also been known to toss in attractive specials from time to time. In April, they went as far as offering new users a month’s worth of commission-free gambling.