DeRace

Overview

The horse racing industry is often overlooked as a niche sport, but with a valuation over 3.5 Billion USD, it is difficult to ignore. DeRace is perfectly positioned to benefit from both the gaming and horse racing industries. The game is a combination of 2 significantly growing multi-billion-dollar markets: video gaming, and horse racing, all merged by blockchain and NFT technologies.

There are different roles within the game that players can explore. From owning and racing NFT horses, breeding, trading or renting them to other players, up to owning the hippodrome itself, creating and administering various racing events. Players can choose which type of gameplay they prefer more and how much involvement they want to put into the game: the gameplay provides various levels of participation within the ecosystem which ties up to winning different rewards.

Player earnings potential is tied in directly with whether they are a horse owner or hippodrome administrator. The latter makes their revenue from hosting tournaments or just the regular races for horse owners to enter in exchange for a fee. While players who own NFT horses have a larger variety of options to make potential earnings: whether from their horses winning races or tournaments, through breeding and trading their NFT horses or from renting them, just to mention a few.

Horses, Jockeys, and Hippodromes

Like real-life racehorses, DeRace NFT horses have different traits that define their rarity, performance, and cool-down time. DeRace horses’ rarity is determined by its tier, of which there are 5: Olympian, Demi-God, Alfa, Beta and Omega (Olympian being the rarest, while Omega most common). They are 100% one-of-a-kind. An NFT horse is necessary in order to participate in the races and earn payouts.

• Tier 1 – Olympian – 50
• Tier 2 – Demi-god – 250
• Tier 3 – Alfa – 500
• Tier 4 – Beta – 1,000
• Tier 5 – Omega – 3,200

Outside of just bragging rights for owning a rare horse, the higher tiers hold more valuable traits and stats. The visible traits are sex, color, shape, breed, breeding and racing cool-down, while the hidden traits are reaction time, speed, and stamina. However, them being hidden doesn’t mean they are any less important. In fact, speed and stamina are arguably the most influential in determining whether your horse can win a race or not. For more information on what each of the hidden stats do, check out the breakdown below:

• Reaction time: how fast a horse can react to the start signal and leave the gate
• Stamina: how long can a horse maintain its speed. Favored terrains can keep you going for a longer distance at top speed than others
  
• Speed: the maximum potential speed a horse can reach

DeRace NFT horses perform differently in various hippodromes: some horses are faster on dirt, some on turf and some on synthetic surface. Performance also depends on racetrack length: some horses are excellent in short distances while some are outstanding in long ones. Race NFT horses in different hippodromes to find out what type of races he prefers.

NFT horses’ levelling system unlock their ability to be equipped with various performance buffing/debuffing wearables. Horse level depends on the amount of experience points collected from participating in races and winning them, and overall activity on the platform.

The NFT Jockeys will quickly become a major influence into DeRace's gameplay mechanism. Each Jockey owns a distinctive silk/uniform differing both in color and patterns, which helps them to be easily recognized during the race. Jockey NFTs can be used with any horse, however racing your Jockey more with a specific horse will enhance their bond. The stronger the bond between the rider and the horse, the better the team performs.

As in real life, each jockey has a racing style and depending on their racing style, you can adapt your strategy around that. Certain jockeys will give you a boost in the early part of the race and it is on you to maintain that lead while others have hidden traits that allow them to pick up the pace towards the final stretch for one last shot at glory.

Horse races take place in hippodromes. Currently there are 6 hippodromes in the DeRace metaverse: Greenfield and Golden Valley (dirt surface), Paradise Hills and Nordic Lights (synthetic surface), Emerald Gardens and Sakura Path (turf surface).

DeRace hippodromes differ in their visual appearance as well as their inherent parameters. The maximum track length of the current hippodromes varies from 8 to 16 furlongs, generating races between 2 and 15 furlongs. They also have 3 different surfaces: dirt, synthetic and turf; which affect the NFT horse’s performance — more specifically — its stamina.

Hippodrome owner is guaranteed a right to administrate races and manage the hippodrome by determining both participation fees, prize fund and other criteria of the races, as well as hosting tournaments and any other events within that hippodrome. A dedicated part of the collected entry fees is shared among all the hippodrome owners. They also schedule the banner placements in the owned hippodromes, make deals with other projects and companies to sponsor their events and much more!

Recent Updates 

In the past few years, DeRace saw transformative updates enhancing gameplay and community engagement. Key developments included the launch of the Golden Valley hippodrome, innovative Horse Renting and Challenge Races, and a System Efficiency Upgrade that optimized game performance. The community expanded significantly, reaching nearly 60,000 users and hosting over 360,000 races. Tokenomics milestones were achieved with the completion of the vesting process for initial offering participants. Community-driven improvements, such as new race types and an updated login system, further enriched the user experience. Derace is also aiming for an Ambitious 2024, as discussed in this article. 

How to Get Started

Connect your MetaMask or WalletConnect wallet to DeRace to start a new and thrilling adventure!

To play in DeRace metaverse you’ll need:

• an NFT horse which you can purchase on OpenSea or rent out directly on the platform
• $DERC tokens on Polygon Network for your in-game needs
• a small number of $MATIC tokens on Polygon Network to deposit/withdraw NFT assets & $DERC tokens into your in-game wallet
• additional in-game NFTs such as Horse Equipment, Liquid Love or others to unlock additional gameplay opportunities

After signing in, deposit your $DERC tokens and other assets such as NFT horses, Liquid Love, and others, into the in-game wallet on the "My Wallet" tab to begin your DeRace journey.

Once you have deposited all the necessary in-game assets you will find them under the "Stables" tab, while your $DERC tokens will become visible next to your profile picture and under the "My Wallet" tab.

You can find more information here