The Vision

Imagine how exhilarating it would be to own a horse that's running in the Kentucky Derby. The most exciting 2 minutes in sports. The pageantry, the mint juleps, the hats! 

Unfortunately, none of us really have been blessed with that opportunity. As we all know, horse racing is called the “Sport of Kings” for a reason! The cost and difficulty of breaking into the industry is at an all-time high, and care for an animal as powerful as a racehorse is prohibitive for many of us to even try.

However, this is about to change, all through the lens of a video game built on PLAYER OWNERSHIP. I truly believe this is one of the biggest innovations in sports games since they moved to 3D. 

Photo Finish™ LIVE – the most authentic horse racing simulation game in the world – is YOUR chance to become a Derby Champion. As an official proud partner of Churchill Downs, we host the ‘Virtual' Kentucky Derby on a monthly basis within the game. Players race for real money, breed, buy, and sell all in an open ecosystem, vying for the ultimate prize of coming out on top in the most exciting (virtual) 2 minutes in sports. 

We here at Third Time Entertainment are bringing all the excitement, drama, and thrill of racehorse ownership to the masses. Since forming Third Time Entertainment, myself and my co-founders Paul Fleetwood and Brian Fleming have spent 8+ years perfecting our craft of creating horse racing games. Prior to founding the company, the three of us worked for 17+ years in the ‘traditional' game industry, with senior leadership positions held at EA SPORTS, Zynga, and FanDuel. As the Creative Director of the Madden NFL series, I lived out my childhood dream of leading one of the most iconic game franchises in history. Once founding Third Time, we went on to create 2 of the most popular horse racing games in the world with over 14 million downloads on the iOS and Android App Stores.

Opportunity

Thanks to our success with the aforementioned horse racing games, experience in creating billion dollar sports game franchises, and even stints as real life race thoroughbred owners, we have long held the belief that one of the biggest and most sustainable cryptocurrency applications would be a properly designed horse racing game with built-in, legally compliant wagering.

Our research indicates the total addressable market of such an ecosystem is in the $5–25 billion range. Madden football earns over $1 billion per year from micro-transactions and sales and there are approximately 184 million NFL fans. EA Sports makes around $5 billion per year from FIFA soccer and there are approximately 3 billion fans worldwide. 

Comparatively, there are almost 600 million horse racing fans, and the corresponding wagering industry sees upwards of $80–$150 billion spent globally per year. 

It's important that potential investors understand the difference between a FRANCHISE like Madden Football (a game that was first released in 1988) and a “normal” video game, one that has a standard life cycle. 

When you have die-hard sports fans, your FRANCHISE can be LONG TERM sustainable, which is critical when cryptocurrency is involved. Obviously, fans love to play great video games of their favorite sport. Soccer fans love to play FIFA soccer, NFL fans love Madden, NBA fans love NBA2K, and many of these fans have been playing them their entire life. Many have taught their children how to play them, and battle it out in the modern version of playing catch. We believe that no developer has cracked the code yet for creating a horse racing FRANCHISE – a long-term sustainable horse racing game they could play for their lifetime. 

Additionally, no horse racing game has tackled a REALISTIC long term vision for wagering. The success of games of skill like daily fantasy (or just standard horse racing / sports betting) is the strategy required in order to be successful AND to have fun. Every other horse racing game or simulation in the past with attempted wagering amounts to a glorified slot machine, with no real skill involved, no history of horses, no bloodlines to research and compare against. Photo Finish™ LIVE changes all that, by creating a product that runs every bit as realistic and authentic as real life, with generations of horses, genetics, and more driving the entire ecosystem.

Lastly, we believe that sustainability within the crypto-gaming space requires major innovations within utilization of tokens. Too many teams have rushed their product out with an unbalanced economy or runaway inflationary supply and watched their token speed-run to zero after supply outweighed demand. $CROWN, our cryptocurrency with its carefully crafted tokenomics, is that innovation that was required. Unlike far too many games under the ‘crypto' moniker, we have created an actual REASON for the token to exist by linking it closely with a forward-thinking spin on track ownership and involvement in the racing ecosystem.  

Our Vision

Imagine the potential of a 24-7, global, platform-agnostic, hyper-realistic horse racing ecosystem where the PLAYERS own the racehorses, breed them via an advanced, true to life genetics engine, and there's built-in wagering that accepts cryptocurrency and fiat. Where horses age and therefore retire (exiting from racing), opening up new opportunities for new players and new horses to find success every 28 days.

And when we say platform-agnostic, we mean it. Over time, we foresee Photo Finish™ LIVE not just on computers and cell phones but in casinos, pubs, and in immersive worlds via virtual or augmented reality.

The game has been live and operational since April 2023, and already checks off a myriad of critical components:

• Fun
• Realistic graphics
• User owned racehorses via NFTs
• Advanced, true to life genetics and breeding engine
• Built in wagering
• Adherence to gambling laws and geo-locking
• Easy onboarding with fiat (credit cards) and cryptocurrency
• Highly strategic with no single “right way” to play
• Horses must retire from racing to breed and have a lifespan
• Excellent tokenomics
• Mobile ready
• Well-funded by excellent investors
• Key partnerships validating the vision
• A strong foundational community of passionate players who love the game

This is just the beginning.  

Photo Finish™ LIVE is the horse racing game the world has been waiting for. 

It has strong early traction and we will be improving it for decades to come. 

Isn't it amazing to think that Satoshi Nakamoto not only created Bitcoin, he paved the way for you to win the Kentucky Derby? 

- Ian Cummings, Founder & CEO