Like every manifestation of our life, sports have also come to be supplied with its virtual counterpart. In the recent decade, esports, or electronic sports have jumped onboard of betting world and looks like its popularity has been steadily growing since then. Currently betting on esports is as common as betting on traditional sports, having reached a global scale. The fact is evident with so many special esports tournaments, esports games and teams competing with each other and attracting unprecedented influx of bettors and mounting interest.
Esports took its roots in 2010 and at the initial stage spread rapidly in Asian countries, particularly in South Korea. It was further boosted through special TV and Internet channels broadcasting esports tournaments, such as ESPN, Twitch.tv, Azuba.tv, on the Youtube Gaming, Facebook Gaming. Super popular competitions where users can play and bet on the outcome include acclaimed “Dota2”, “League of Legends”, “Hearthstone:Heroes of Warcraft”, “CS:GO”. Thousands of matches are on every day, with bookies offering various types of odds and wins on multiple outcomes.
Operators and platform providers have been striving to create auspicious conditions and terms, as well as grow technically to integrate incrementally growing number of new games and new level of betting traffic on the platforms. This is not surprising proceeding from A New “eSports Betting Market” Research Report 2023: Demonstrate global opportunities, future business trends, and current growth scenario of Top Market Players (William Hill, GVC Holdings, 888 Holdings, Kindred Group, Betsson AB, Betway).As estimated by marketing specialists:
Global eSports Betting Market The global eSports Betting market size is projected to reach USD 24190 million by 2028, from USD 9749 million in 2021, at a CAGR of 13.7% during 2022-2028.
Hence, nowadays betting on esports is available on numerous platforms: desktop, mobile, even telephone betting, with various apps offered by platform providers.
The capacious concept of esports may arise some confusion, so an approximate definition of the term would be relevant here.
What are Esports?
In essence, esports are a form of competition, or video games organized and played within highly structured and regulated virtual environment. Esports punters have two broad options to choose from, either simulations of real sports (FIFA, NBA and others have this option with their own teams) or classic esports games.
Which are popular Esports Games?
There are many genres of Esports betting, with the broadest being Multiple Online Betting Arena (MOBA), First-Person Shooters (FPS) and Real Sports Simulations. Among all these the best-known and well-respected by esports punters are:
- Counter- Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO)
Developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and Valve Corporation this is a team-play featuring first-person shooter tactical game. It was first released in August 2012, with regular updates. The plot mostly revolves around terrorists and anti-terrorists fighting in different situations to destroy each other.
- League of Legends
Developed and released by Riot Games for different versions of Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is a multi-player game (MOBA) where two teams of 5 members compete with each other. The users control members, endowed by various level of skills and abilities. In the course of game some players become more potent by collecting experience points. The goal is to protect own part of the map and eventually conquest the enemy’s part and destroying its Nexus.
- Dota 2
MOBA video game developed by Valve is one of the most sophisticated games with numerous tactics to be discovered and put into game by users. This is a sequel to Defense if the Actions. Users control one of the characters with different level of skills and talents, with the ultimate goal of defending the opponent’s base.
- Esports FIFA, NBA, Rocket League
Examples of sports simulators which can add flavour and more opportunities to sports fans.
With all these titles on the top, the development of other games and tournaments for titles like Valorant, Overwatch 2, Call of Duty, Rainbow Six Siege, StarCraft II and Fortnite highlights new paths for esports punters and betting industry in general.
Which are Esports Betting Options and Markets?
To make the process engaging and exciting, betting webpages offer a pool of betting markets and options. These can be broadly classified into:
Match betting- when players place a bet on the match outcome
Betting on Streamers – when players bet on a specific aspect of the match or game while it is streamlined
Esports System Betting – betting which involves a set of selections
Esports Specific Betting – every esports or game has its own specific types of betting options
Skin Betting - it is a very unique type of esports betting which involves betting of in-game transferrable gaming properties
Which are Deposit Method to Make Esports Bets?
Like traditional sportsbooks deposit methods Esports betting also can be made using different modes:
- Virtual Wallets
- Master/Visa Cards
- Crypto
- Cash Deposits
- Money transfer
Rapidly evolving iGaming market, including Esports, is quite heterogeneous in terms of markets, likes and preferences of specific sports, casino games, design, betting types, payment methods, perspectives. It varies from age to gender, across cultures and genders, welfare of the population and other social factors. To sum up, below is a list of countries where the population favours Esports mostly and where it is worth investing into in this new, yet such a promising industry of Esports betting.
- China
- USA
- South Korea
- Denmark
- Brazil
