Virtual Kentucky Derby Betting Odds

The postponement of the 146th Kentucky Derby until September put a fly in everyone’s mint julep, so instead NBC Sports is quenching our thirst for horse racing by setting up a virtual race featuring every Triple Crown winner in the event’s history.

The Derby, which is typically held the first weekend of May, will broadcast on NBC as a computer simulation for the Run for the Roses. With it featuring the most successful horses in the event’s 145-year history, naturally, Secretariat is the +225 favorite to complete the “Quadruple Crown.”

Secretariat, the thoroughbred stallion who won the Triple Crown in 1973, will race out of lane 3 and is followed on the oddsboard by Citation (+500), a stallion from 1948 who is in lane 8, with Affirmed (lane 1) and Seattle Slew (lane 5) tied for third on the list, each at +800.

As a sports bettor, if this all seems to be going over your head, no sweat. Odds Shark has got you covered with some handy guides to get you up to speed like “How To Bet on Virtual Sports” and “The difference between esports and Virtual Sports.”

For now, here are the full betting odds to win the Virtual Kentucky Derby on May 2:

Odds as of May 1 at  Bodog

Broadcast Schedule and Where To Watch

The Kentucky Derby is one of the many sports events in 2020 affected or canceled by the COVID-19 outbreak, with Churchill Downs empty on the first Saturday in May for the first time since 1945.

Obviously, we didn’t have the technology back then to digitize this popular race for the masses, and with it now going virtual, bettors and horse racing aficionados get to watch this at home at the same time this year’s event was originally supposed to start.

Here are the full details for the broadcast schedule and where to watch the virtual Race for the Roses:

Understanding Virtual Kentucky Derby Odds

When you check out the best horse racing sportsbooks, futures betting props like “Virtual Kentucky Derby Odds” will be listed and you’ll see odds that look something like this:

Secretariat +225

Citation +500

American Pharoah +900

To bet on these odds, you would be making a futures bet. If this were a moneyline bet, you’d be able to see which team is the clear favorite because it would have a minus sign beside its odds (-). For these futures, the horse with the lowest odds is favored to win the Virtual Kentucky Derby and the rest are underdogs.

If you think Secretariat will win the Virtual Kentucky Derby and you bet $100 on the stallion, you’d get a payout of $325 – you get your $100 back along with your winnings of $225. Our Odds Calculator will show you how much you’d win based on the odds and amount bet.