Super Bowl on VR – The conclusion of every NFL season is the most attention-inducing TV event of the year. The Super Bowl, the final of the National Football League, gathers more than one hundred million Americans to device’s screens annually to witness who will get crowned NFL champion and lift the Vince Lombardi trophy. In the past, people could only view this occurrence on their TV screens, then it became possible for them to watch it on their phones, and now, they can get fully engross in this match via virtual reality technology.
Thus, the answer to the question – can you watch the Super Bowl in VR is a resounding yes. Moreover, this has been a possibility for several years now. Naturally, the best method to experience Super Bowl LVII is from inside State Farm Stadium in Glendale. But seeing as ticket prices run between $4,600 to $33,000, few can afford this privilege. That is why VR is the next best thing to see the Kansas City Chiefs dueling the Philadelphia Eagles on February 12th.
FOX has the broadcast rights for Super Bowl LVII, and the company’s FOX Sports VR app allows anyone with a Steam-compatible VR headset to soak in this and other live sporting events in a brand-new way. Particularly boosting the viewing experience for betting lovers who enjoy wagering on the fastest-paying Super Bowl sites, gambling while watching games 100% immersed as being there live from home was not an option until recently. But now, apps like FOX Sports VR let football fanatics teleport to a VIP stadium suite, or take in a game via various camera positions set throughout the stadium, catching the action like never before. A breakdown of the top five headsets that can run the FOX Sports VR app, along with their price tags and features, follows.
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Oculus Rift S/ Quest 2
Oculus was a tech company founded in 2012 by Michael Antonov, Palmer Luckey, Nate Mitchell, and Brendan Iribe that aimed to create a modern VR headset for gaming fun. It got bought out by Facebook and now operates as Reality Labs, a unit of Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook). Its Oculus Rift S device was co-develop by Lenovo Technologies and hit the market on March 20th, 2019, at an introductory price of $399, which it has maintained till today. The Meta Quest 2 is a newer headset, debuting in October 2020, costing $299 for the 64 GB version and $399 for the 256 GB one.
Valve Index
The Valve Corporation is an American video game developer that rose to prominence in the late-1990s with their now legendary and industry-changing title Half-Life. The Index is a consumer-grade VR headset by Valve that appeared in electronic stores in June 2019, costing $999. It advertises a 130° field of view and LCD panels for each eye featuring a resolution of 1440×1600. It is a higher-end device that uses BMR drivers to manufacture accurate and immersive low-frequency sounds. Only those with big pockets go for it, not football bettors that look to claim a Super Bowl betting bonus for the NFL final.
HTC Vive
According to most PC gaming outlets for casual gamers on a budget, the HTC Vive, released in 2016, is a terrific choice. It has intuitive controls and a software partnership with Valve. The downsides of this device are that it is a bit pricey at $599, requires a top-notch GPU, and is realistically less comfortable than most Oculus/Reality Labs’ products.
HP Windows Mixed Reality Headset
Marked by a handful of regrettable design decisions, the HP Windows Mixed Reality headset supplies multiple quality features. And if one can find it for a price below $300, that is a deal that should not get pass\ up on because this device has a replaceable tether cable, is easy to set up, and fits a wide range of head sizes.
Pimax 5K Super
The Pimax 5K is a VR and is an underrated console. It features dual displays running at 1440p with refresh rates up to 180HZ. The image quality here is excellent, and the mechanical head strap is super handy. At $899, this is a pricey option and is a choice for those deep into VR gaming, people that appreciate the 9-axis accelerometer built into this device and its 150°-200° field of view.
What to Pay Attention to for VR Super Bowl Viewing
Since FOX has the TV rights to the NFL championship game, only its app can show it in VR. It is vital that parties planning to take in the game in this way run tests ahead of time, pick an ideal viewing environment, and ensure that they have the required bandwidth to run good quality video in their headset. As a rule of thumb, 6 Mbps is enough to stream high-definition video, but speeds of 25 Mbps and above are better for decent VR entertainment.
