Is eSport betting the New Growth Market?
eSports as a professional sport and form of entertainment has been getting great exposure over the last year or two. We are witnessing the evolution of video gaming and the making of history, when no adult will frown upon it as a kids’ thing. Appropriately, the eSports betting market has grown too along with the sport.
Today the biggest betting companies that used to offer only betting on traditional sports offer eSports betting too. It is common sight to find a betting website with over 600 casino games and with the common betting markets like football, basketball, MMA, and the other among which eSports all at once.
In 2015 the eSports economy generated a revenue of $325 million worldwide, while in 2016 it is expected to grow to over $463 million. eSports remains an industry with the greatest potential for years to come in every aspect: gaming, marketing, betting etc. Today you can even find daily fantasy websites that offer eSports fantasy betting which only shows to which extent eSports betting has evolved.
In 2015 the Eilers Research projected the eSports betting market as a huge potential growth industry, and estimated that in the next five years a total wagering action of around $20 billion will be made. This means that eSports betting fanatics will spend over $20 billion in just five years by betting on their favorite eSports teams and events.
eSports is an extremely hospitable environment. It’s very suitable demographically, culturally, logistically and technologically for real-money wagering hence the big boom that has been happening in the last year. The structural barriers that have obstructed the general growth and penetration of eSports betting have been dampened, and now the sport is reaping the benefits of the positive micro trends for both the broader online gambling industry and eSports.
Currently a number of platforms support eSports betting: game-mediated betting sites, fantasy sports sites, eSports betting sites and traditional sportsbooks. On top of that the cost for acquiring the customers are fairly low since all eSports lovers are avid Internet users so they don’t have a problem in using these platforms or getting to know them.
Let’s support all of this with facts. There are more than 200 million people that play or watch eSports, a number that is still growing. More than 3.7 billion minutes of media were consumed by more than 90 million viewers in just one year. There are now as many gamers as there are traditional sports fans in the world, which will make eSports bigger than some sports like hockey. Hell, eSports is already bigger than some sports in terms of number of fans.