Chat games
Horse race chat game: bet on five horses
Viewers back one of five horses with their points and watch the race on your overlay. Name the horses, set their strength and choose fixed odds or a shared pool.
How a race works
A race opens with a 45 second betting window. Each viewer backs one horse by number or by the start of its name, once per race. When betting closes the finishing order is drawn, weighted by each horse’s strength, and the overlay plays the race to that result with a podium at the end.
By default only moderators can open a new round (“Who can start a round” is set to Moderator). Viewers join a round that is already open. Change the setting to Anyone if viewers should be able to start rounds themselves, or let rounds open on a timer.
Chat commands
| Command | Who | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| !race 3 100 | Anyone (to bet) | Backs horse number 3 with 100 points. |
| !horserace midnight 50 | Anyone (to bet) | The alias, picking a horse by name. |
| !race … (no race open) | Moderator by default | Opens a race with this bet. |
Odds and payouts
In fixed odds mode, the default, each horse’s odds come from its strength, minus the house edge. Five equal horses with the default 5% edge pay 4.75x, a 95% return on average. The odds are printed on the betting board.
In shared pool mode every bet goes into one pot. After the house edge is taken, the pot is shared among everyone who backed the winner in proportion to their bet. If nobody backed the winner, nobody is paid.
Points are your channel’s own virtual currency. They have no cash value and cannot be bought or paid out.
Settings you can change
| Setting | Default | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Horses | Blue Bolt, Midnight, Lucky Star, Red Rocket, Green Flash | Name, colour and strength (1 to 100) of each of the five horses. |
| Payout mode | Fixed odds | Fixed odds or Shared pool. |
| House edge | 5% | From 0 to 50%. |
| Time until the race starts | 45 seconds | The betting window. |
| Time between rounds | 120 seconds | Counted from the end of the last race. |
| Start automatically every | Off | Opens a race every few minutes while you are live. |
Set up Horse Race
- Turn on the points system on the Points page, or switch on “Play without points” on the Mini-games page if you want rounds without stakes.
- Open Mini-games in the dashboard sidebar and switch Horse Race on.
- Press Configure to change the rules, timing, look and every chat message the bot sends for this game.
- Use the Test button next to the overlay preview to play a practice round on your overlay. Test rounds never move points and never post in chat.
Show it on stream
Horse Race is already part of your all-in-one overlay, so if that browser source is in your scene there is nothing else to add. The game stays invisible until a round starts and fades out when it ends.
If you want to place the game on its own, copy the overlay URL from the game’s settings page and add it in OBS as a Browser source at the size shown next to the URL. Keep that URL private: it belongs to your channel.
The overlay only shows the result; the outcome is decided on the server with a cryptographic random number before the animation starts. If no overlay is open, the result is posted in chat straight away.
Questions
Is the horse race on the free plan?
Needs InstiBot Premium. On the free plan the game is shown with a lock and its command stays silent.
Can I make one horse the favourite?
Yes. Give it a higher strength. It wins more often and its fixed odds drop to match.