Zed Run is a digital blockchain-based horse racing game where users can own, breed, and race digital racehorses with other players from around the world. ZED RUN was launched in January 2019 by Virtually Human Studio. In January 2022, ZED RUN celebrated a historic milestone one-millionth race.^[6]

Overview

Zed Run is an NFT-powered digital horse-racing platform that hosts several race events every hour. All horses on Zed Run are entirely digital. Horse owners can easily participate, as each only costs around $2 to $15 to participate in a race. NFT technology enables these horses to have unique and varying bloodlines, genotypes, and breeds, which collectively determine the strengths and weaknesses of each stud, as well as their rarity and overall value.^[2]

Users can earn by winning races, and from selling and breeding valuable horses on various NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea. The game uses the Zed Run Wallet powered by the Polygon, which is a decentralized platform that provides faster and gas-less transactions with the security and safety of the blockchain, as well as substantially improving the user experience on ZED RUN.^[8]

Game Basics

The first step in creating a ZED RUN stable is to set up a MetaMask wallet. To get started, a user needs to sign up for Zed Run with a social media account — Google, Facebook, Twitter, Discord, or email — or sign in with MetaMask. Once one creates a wallet, they are able to connect it to a digital stable found on Zed Run's website. This digital stable also serves as a portfolio management tool, where a user can see their thoroughbreds and their win percentages.

As a next step, a user needs to buy at least one horse from secondary markets like OpenSea using their crypto wallet and some ETH.  Prices depend on the horse's attributes.

Racing horses

The races are divided into tiers based on a horse's "Z rating." There are six classes on these tiers. The best horses and highest-rated classes belong to Class 1. The purpose of this tier is to ensure that the games remain fair among players. Once a user discovered their horse class, they can join class events. There are both free races and tournaments, which require paying a fee and feature large prize pools.

Breeding horses

There are multiple types of horses in the game including Colt, Stallion, Filly, and Mare. If a user only owns a female horse, they have to pay stud fees to breed. The owner of the male horse determines this fee. The proceeds are split among the owner of the male horse, the collected prize pool, and the platform. A male horse can participate in the breeding of three offspring monthly. Females, on the other hand, can have only one breeding event per month. Moreover, horses can't join races while they're breeding. In addition, there's a minimum base breeding fee of 0.075 ETH, which may vary depending on the bloodline and breed types.^[2]

Other Horses Attributes

The horses are the game's NFTs, and they have multiple attributes. Coat color is an attribute that has no influence on their performance during races, but can affect a horse's personality. There are 7 coat color groups: Neptune, Earth, Wild, Moon, Fiery, Classic, and Mystical.^[3]

Bloodline

The bloodline affects the performance and rarity of a digital horse. There are four bloodlines, named after cryptocurrency pioneers: Nakamoto, Szabo, Finney, and Buterin.

• Nakamotos are the rarest and purest thoroughbreds. They're the most expensive of all bloodlines.
• Szabos are also relatively rare but are more affordable than Nakamotos.
• Finneys are common bloodlines that can be trusted to participate in races effectively.
• Buterins are the most common of all bloodlines.

Genotype

The genotype affects the purity of the horse as seen in its Z rarity. The purer the horse, the lower its Z number. Genesis bloodlines are the purest, which have Z1 to Z10 genotypes.

Breed

There are six breed types: Genesis, Legendary, Exclusive, Elite, Cross, and Pacer. Genesis horses are distributed via airdrops and are the purest of all breeds.

Racing Strategy

All unraced racehorses must compete in a Griffin race to begin their racing career. Once a racehorse has run its Griffin race, it must complete nine further Discovery races. These races are used to establish that racehorse's class rating, which in turn is used to assign it to a specific class once the Discovery races have been completed. After the Discovery races, there are six classes that a racehorse can be assigned to. Once assigned, a racehorse can move up and down between the different classes based on their finishing position in races.^[4]

ZED Token

In August 2022, ZED RUN launched its governance token. From Thursday, July 28, 2022, all eligible wallet addresses were able to claim. The developers created the airdrop eligibility criteria based on racing, ownership, and breeding data across Ethereum and Polygon blockchain. This eligibility is based on several factors such as length of racehorse ownership, the number of paid races completed, the number of free races completed, and the activation bonus.^[14] The claiming window was open for 90 days from the time of launch. Any unclaimed tokens were sent to the ZED Token Treasury after the claiming window expired. Users did not have to pay any gas fees when claiming their ZED Tokens.^[13] In the future, ZED tokens will be used for payments on the ZED Run platform, accessing in-game functionalities, participating in special events, and many other utilities.

Total ZED tokens cap is set to 1 billion tokens, distributing 15% to its team, 18.28% to its backers, 34.72% to the rewards treasury, and a further 25% to bolster token governance, and an additional 7% to the airdrop participants.^[14]

Partnerships

Stella Artois

In June 2021, Stella Artois partnered with Zed Run to issue 50 NFTs tied to specially branded in-game horses; they were auctioned off in daily batches. Each NFT also came with digital artwork and in-game horse skin.^[11]

NASCAR

In October 2021, NASCAR made its debut in ZED RUN coinciding with the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race at Talladega Superspeedway. The companies opened a 24-hour window for those who enter to win one of 100 NASCAR ZED passes. ZED Pass was a stand-alone NFT that rewarded holders and unlocked future in-game features, along with other special perks such as special airdrops and entry to exclusive in-game events. In addition to 100 passes, there also were 900 NASCAR ZED passes available for purchase.^[12]

Budweiser

In June 2022, beer brand Budweiser revealed a marketing and sponsorship deal with Zed Run. Budweiser released in-game horse skins based on its familiar Clydesdale mascots, as well as a Budweiser-themed race track in the game. The brands also collaborated on in-game challenges, with $185,000 in total prize money committed, as well as exclusive co-branded merchandise. Zed Run sold a Budweiser Pass NFT on June 9, with 2,500 NFTs available for purchase at a price of $225 apiece plus Ethereum network transaction fees. Collectors who own an existing Budweiser Heritage Can NFT and either a Zed Run Genesis NFT racehorse or a Zed Run NASCAR pass could gain early access to the sale before the public launch.^[9]

The beer brand will also sponsor a pair of in-game challenges in July and August with a $45,000 prize pool for each, plus a December tournament that will offer up $95,000 in prize money and a free year-long supply of beer for a winner. Meanwhile, exclusive merchandise will be released for NFT holders in November.^[9][10]

Team

The creators and founders of Zed Run are Chris Laurent, Rob Salha, Geoff Wellman, and Chris Ebeling. Zed Run is based out of Australia. Laurent and Salha are also the cofounders of Virtually Human Studio, a startup dealing with gaming and mixed-reality tech. Wellman comes from a background in software and web development, and Ebeling has a background in VR and AR projects, gaming, and digital art.^[2]

In January 2022, Virtually Human Studio acquired Spectre Studios with the vision of reshaping the NFT landscape. What the acquisition means for ZED RUN is that as developers, the team is focused on delivering one of the highest levels of NFT experiences to the community.^[5]

Partners

• MakerDAO
• Atari
• Preakness
• Stella Artois
• NASCAR
• Decentraland's Vegas City
• Netflix
• Victoria Racing Club (The Lexus Melbourne Cup)^[7]