Island businessman Vincent Caldwell has scaled an important hurdle in his bid to have his new island-based ’virtual racing’ product fully licensed and ’live’ for punters in the United States.

His island based company Virtual Software (VS) has developed what is billed as a world-first virtual racing software that creates races in real time.

Now Mr Caldwell has welcomed what he calls a ground-breaking ’historic’ Senate vote in the US state of Oregon to give regulatory approval.

He said that the success of his venture depended on this decision and also approval from the USA National Thoroughbred Association and Jockey Club in Kentucky, which takes two years to achieve.

This approval has also now been given. This grants the virtual racecourses similar betting status to all ’live’ US racecourses.

He says he has secured exclusive rights to several iconic real-world tracks and is now in the process of concluding more deals.

Four tracks including Tampa Bay Downs in Florida have been developed and are going through final testing for an imminent launch.

Approval for the product has already been gained by BMM Test labs in Las Vegas, the longest established and most experienced private independent gaming test laboratory in the world.

Gaming entrepreneur Mr Caldwell is the founder and majority shareholder in Manx registered Virtual Software Limited, as first reported by Business News last autumn.

Northern Ireland born Mr Caldwell, 58, a popular figure in the gambling industry in the Isle of Man and further afield, lives in Onchan, with his wife Maneerat, known as Annie, his son Cameron, 17, a final year pupil at KWC, and Annie’s daughter Nat, 20, who is visiting from Thailand.

He told Business News that his virtual racing product is set to go live with virtual racing from at least four virtual horse and dog tracks launched by October, 2019.

His team includes Isle of Man-based Dave Mousley, co- founder of a company that created virtual racing products in the UK in 2000.

Mr Mousley, who is also special advisor to the organisation Isle of Media in the Isle of Man, has been working with Vincent on technical aspects of the project and is full of praise for Vincent’s work and enthusiasm.

He said Mr Caldwell had used his knowledge and experience working in America to bring the project together.

Since returning a number of years ago from the United States, where he built up many contacts with business associates in the world of gaming, Mr Caldwell also once held the position for a time as an e-gaming ’ambassador’ for the Isle of Man.

high hopes

He has high hopes for the enterprise which he says is a global first and involves developing virtual racing software that creates races in real time from real-live American dog and horse tracks.

Mr Caldwell, whose late father Charles, was a well-known businessman in Belfast, led the listing of the first online betting company based in the Isle of Man from a £125,000 start-up in 1998 to a stock market listing 18 months later which valued it at £26million.

He said: ’For each virtual track we build we could run 87,600 races each year. So with just seven tracks built we could run over 600,000 races per year.’

Virtual racing is nothing new. The difference here is that the racing will come from ’real’ tracks rather than fictitious racetracks with made-up names.

The project involves creating replicas of real USA racetracks.

He said more than 76% of the shares in the company, VS, are owned by Manx residents.

Recently a number of well known gaming sector individuals have also become shareholders.

Mr Caldwell says this reassures him that he is on the right path.

Mr Mousley, who is an important member of the team, said virtual racing was never legal in the United States before because of the way the rules worked.

The landscape had since changed.

’But in about 2015 I said to Vincent that it would be great if someone could take it on in the States.

’So Vincent came up with making a race which would not be fixed odds or what is called robotic gambling.

’It would be based on real historical events .

’Vincent had great contacts in the United States and what is happening is really exciting because I believe this is a global first.’

Mr Caldwell has already secured distribution and customer service arrangements with US Off-Track LLC, which will distribute his software to casinos, racetracks, betting shops and online betting outlets.

He also finalised a joint venture partnership with Amtote, the world’s largest Tote wagering company, who process 12.5 billion dollars in bets every year.

Mr Caldwell recently commissioned a ’virtual betting report’ from Castletown-based Global Betting and Gaming Consultants (GBGC)

grow

Among its conclusions GBGC said: ’GBGC is confident that the virtual betting market will continue to grow in both the established markets and in the global fledgling markets’.

Since the report Mr Caldwell has explained that a bill to legalise virtual betting on racing products in the USA had just been won and the launch of these products was imminent.

Several well known industry faces and industry journalists have said this ’could have a significant impact on virtual betting revenues’.

Mr Caldwell said: ’We have some very significant partners in this project.’

Mr Mousley said: ’None of this could work without the team that Vincent has put together.

’The tote people, the track people, the technical people that includes myself, and there is also the political buy-in.

’It’s taken 42 months to get the legislation through and that is down to the persistance of Vincent and his USA partners.

’That has been quite an achievement.’

He said that since being involved in introducing virtual racing earlier this century people had been asking what the next big thing was going to be.

’I said it would be to ’’crack America.’’ ’

Mr Caldwell said: ’We are now looking to build and launch a minimum of seven racetrack products: two greyhound, one harness racing and four thoroughbred horse tracks.’

More will follow, he said.

Mr Caldwell added: ’I am currently raising a further £2.5m to expand the number of tracks and pursue an additional state licence to complement what we have achieved already.’

His company was established with the specific goal of designing a bespoke software system that provides true computer generated virtual horse and greyhound racing based on real race data and not on robotic random number generated data.

winner

Mr Caldwell added: ’We are on to a winner. We are expecting a tremendous upside for our investors, as our concept will have first to market advantage.

’And it will also be a dream ticket for punters in the United States.’

Mr Mousley said: ’Vincent’s reputation out there in the United States is very evident.’

Mr Caldwell said he is a great enthusiast for the Isle of Man along with Mr Mousley and other members of the team.

He has been researching the history of racetracks that used to operate in the island including the original ’Derby’ at Derbyhaven along with one in Douglas on the site where the NSC is now and at Great Meadow.

Mr Caldwell says he has had early discussions to film a documentary and promote the Isle of Man as ’’The home of all Derbys’’.

’When I get the virtual project up and going I would like to investigate the documentary further.’

Mr Caldwell was married to Maneerat, known as Annie, nearly a year ago in a glittering ceremony at Hillsborough Castle, the Queen’s official residence in Northern Ireland.

As reported previously he is co-owner with his mother Kathleen of the horse Poormans Hill, which won the Ulster Grand National last year.

He owns a number of horses with top Irish trainer Gordon Elliott and recently returned from a trip to the County Meath stables with Annie.

The Caldwell family is sponsoring a couple of races at a forthcoming race meeting at Downpatrick, Northern Ireland.

One of the races will be in memory of his late father.

Mr Caldwell is himself a former bookmaker.