Esports is one of the fastest growing phenomena in recent history. Some records date the first video gaming competitions way back to the 80s, while most records track the boom to the early 2000s, gaining the majority of its steam from the 2010s. With any boom in a competitive activity, microcosms of keen onlookers emerge, and betting communities begin to develop, and with the case with esports, these microcosms have had a huge impact on the business of bookmaking.
Esports have become one of the most popular activities in the world, and even more so within online gambling, while betting on soccer, and playing online casinos still reign supreme. Esports however has not only seen booming growth from an industry perspective, but has also seen substantial growth in terms of bettors who have taken to bookmakers to bet on events.
Bigger name commercial operators like Betway have become heavily affiliated with Esports betting, often sponsoring tournaments and teams, while other bookmakers, such as Rivalry, have based their bookmaking business solely around esports. This shows how far esports have come in such a short amount of time.
The reception of this growth and changing face of bookmaking when it comes to esports has had mixed reviews across the world. For example, in more developing countries like India and South Africa, esports have yet to properly take off, with some bookmakers in these countries not offering odds for these events at all.
While in North America, it appears that the approach is a little different. In the US, where the online betting market is developing at lightning speed, only two states that have legalized sports betting allow operators to offer esports betting. The reasons for the majority of US states to disallow esports betting is that minors can form part of some esports teams, and there lies the assumption that esports events can be prone to match fixing.
This appears to be somewhat of a point of contention, as other sports that sports betting odds are offered for involve the participation of minors, (like soccer), while other sports can be viewed as being even more prone to match fixing (such as cricket).
North of the US, the approach is very different. Canada is in the process of overhauling its approach to legal sports betting, implementing a province by province approach,. Ontario is the first province to launch a commercial sports betting market, with all of the betting sites in Ontario having been granted access to offer esports betting.
While the reception of the iGaming esports link has been disputed by governing bodies like those in the US, what’s clear is that the remainder of the world is very open to having licensed bookmakers offer esports, which can in turn be an incredibly lucrative avenue for commercial sportsbooks to go down. Bookmakers have now come to base their products around Esports, which is a huge step for the industry as a whole.
Robert Griffith is a content and essay writer. He is collaborating with local magazines and newspapers. Robert is interested in topics such as marketing and history.
