(Newswire.net — February 5, 2021) — Days, where esports was nothing more than a buzzword, are far gone. The industry has grown to impressive sizes during the past few years. The prize pools are getting larger; the audience grows, and so does the gambling aspect. While still highly unregulated, plenty of bookmakers choose to provide a betting opportunity for esports enthusiasts. Whether it’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, Dota 2, or Overwatch, you’ll likely find an abundance of games to bet on.
Perhaps due to the ongoing digitalisation of society, esports has experienced tremendous growth. Right now, video games are an industry worth over $160 billion, with the betting industry at $15 billion, which means that it contributes quite a bit to the casino online market.
A brief history of esports betting
It didn’t happen overnight that sports betting has become a multi-billion dollar industry. With its beginning in the ‘70s, esports betting has been steadily growing since then, with a surge after 2010. The growth of the internet and the video game industry have let people watch their favourite stars compete in international tournaments.
Esports betting has become far more popular after introducing the so-called skins to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive back in 2013. Skins are in-game “loot” that you can use to change the appearance of your weapon. They don’t give you any advantage apart from the fancy looks. The skins are worth a lot of money, with some extremely rare ones as much as a few thousand dollars. They can be found in cases that require you to buy €2.20 keys to open. Now, some websites took advantage of it, providing betting services using these skins.
The industry was not controlled by any authority, and the website owners could virtually do whatever they wanted, as they didn’t operate with real money. But it wasn’t until 2016 when a lawsuit was filed against Valve, the CS:GO developer. This lawsuit has led to discontinuation of gambling websites operating with skins. Nowadays, it’s entirely possible to gamble with them, with the market being under control, although it was problematic for quite some time.
Soon enough, after bookmakers saw that skin betting was relatively popular, they started to include esports in their services, and thus, real money esports betting was born and popularised. Apart from the most popular games that were the only ones available initially, bookmakers now offer far more niche titles to bet on. There’s even the option to live bet, but only in large tournaments in games such as DOTA 2, LoL, and CS:GO.
Rapid growth
The industry’s quick development led to more and more operators, including the esports betting services into their offer. With large tournaments attracting as many as 100 million spectators, further growth is likely here to stay. The esports betting persona is fairly young as well, as people showing interest in esports are mostly in their twenties, or even younger. Because so many youngsters are attracted to esports gambling, the future looks pretty bright for the industry. In fact, the average bettor age is getting lower and lower. A majority of professional teams have a dedicated betting sponsor, too.
While the days of scammy websites are pretty much gone, there’s still the issue of children being targeted by the gambling websites. The primary difference between your regular betting advertisements here is that the providers don’t use the “free money”, “extra benefit” tactic. They far more prefer having a constant activity on social media, regularly posting content. The majority of the audience the content reaches is less than 23 years old, with almost a third of them under 16.
Further acceleration due to the pandemic
While the global crisis has harmed many industries, the esports betting sector has been faring pretty good. Because so many people stay home these days, and many activities are pretty much banned, esports betting has seen a significant surge this year. As the pandemic is highly unlikely to end soon, the increased interest will undoubtedly continue to grow.
Because regular sports events were mostly cancelled due to the pandemic, esports has stepped right into their shoes. Many gamblers turned their head to the industry, speeding up its growth quite a bit. The fact that they were unable to bet on their favourite sports made them consider other possibilities.
Uncertain legal status
The legal situation of esports betting is largely unclear. While countries are implementing laws that cover online gambling, they mostly don’t include esports in them. There haven’t been any major movements that would legalise esports betting fully. Only Nevada’s state has approved a few tournaments you could bet on, with the first legal bet placed back in 2016.
Most countries still haven’t recognised esports as a discipline you can bet on. It’s not specified within the law concerning online gambling and betting. These laws only apply to typical gambling activities such as poker, roulette, slots, etc. We’re pretty likely to see it change quite soon, as the industry is steadily and rapidly growing. I would guess that we’d have to wait until the end of the pandemic, as countries have different issues that need to be taken care of right now.
Future of esports betting
Although esports betting industry growth is likely to slow down with sports events’ return, it certainly won’t stop. Still, almost no laws and regulations have yet been introduced. Because the legal status is so unclear, it’s difficult to predict the future of esports betting. The developers of the most popular video games used for betting aren’t really clear how to respond to the whole ordeal. They didn’t permit anybody to gamble with their game, but they haven’t forbidden them to either. On one side, gambling is considered an unlikely activity. At the same time, it’s a highly lucrative industry, and so the authorities chose not to comment on it and pretty much ignored it. They wouldn’t want to come across as somebody promoting gambling, but the advertising of their game involved is enough for them not to disapprove of it.