Recently, an expert industry panel appeared at ESI Lisbon to guide an audience through the growth and state of play for the esports betting market. Presently, esports betting and wagering make up a whopping 53% of all esports revenues, and it’s the biggest channel for earnings in the market.
On the panel sat Moritz Maurer (GRID Esports), Karl Rönn (Kambi Abios), Gal Ehrlich (BETER), and as they explored the esports betting market, it became clear that things were looking bright.
‘There Are Billions in Wagers’
Esports wagering makes up a massive portion of the industry. These days, almost every mainstream betting platform covers esports tournaments, and more operators specific to esports betting are surfacing all the time. For the biggest esports games in the business, every tournament represents a solid opportunity for both operators and esports fans to make a little money.
That was the theme touched on by Moritz Maurer, the CEO at GRID Esports:
It’s not an emerging betting sector anymore, there are billions in wagers … We’ve been at this for six years now, and it took a few years to introduce this paradigm shift, but right now we’re in a time where there is buy-in.
What’s helping the growth of esports betting is the density of data coming out of the space. Over time, esports data is evolving and becoming a much-needed resource in the business. It allows organisations to scout better, media to report clearer, and betting operators to devise more intricate and advanced markets.
Gal Ehrlich of BETER referenced that very point:
If you look at the amount of data generated by an esports game, it’s enormous. The ability to take this data and build it into algorithms, that’s a major difference … Things are getting blurred. This trend will continue – games are getting more popular, more tournaments, more exposure.
He was bold and bullish about the future of esports betting: ‘It’s here to stay and to further develop.’
Currently, the likes of Counter-Strike, League of Legends, and Dota 2 represent ‘The Big Three’ in esports. They have the biggest financial backing, the most ambitious tournaments, and the largest betting handles out of the dozens of games that make up the industry.
But things are changing, of course.
VALORANT is not emerging at all anymore. It’s on par with Counter-Strike when it comes to per-map betting volumes … The Big Three are still there, but I would say that we now have The Big Four. – Moritz Maurer
Karl Rönn of Kambi Abios parted ways with key information about the ‘typical esports bettor’, highlighting how esports wagering is bleeding into the wider market:
The typical bettor is male but he’s a bit older than you might think. Almost all people that bet on esports are also big punters in either football or other sports – but usually football.
Esports can reach a diverse audience, and it’s an audience that’s growing all the time. It’s estimated that some 500 million esports enthusiasts exist worldwide, and with a pool of more than two billion gamers filling out that market all the time, it’s only growing – and at a rapid rate.
We’ve already seen esports betting overtake some traditional sports categories – will it continue to surpass bigger and bolder sports as the market grows? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming forum.
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