The Rise and Rise of Esports Betting Markets

Posted by Harry Kane on Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Currently, it’s thought that remote sports betting accounts for approximately 38% of the total online GGY in the UK, with the marketplace on these shores incredibly competitive and home to a huge number of licensed operators.

Interestingly, a growing number of these sportsbooks are increased inclined to promote sports betting markets, which pertain to a wide array of games from League of Legends and Call of Duty to iconic sports franchises like FIFA.

In this post, we’ll explore the concept of esports betting in further detail, while offering some basic advice on how to wager successfully on certain markets.

What is Esports Betting?

In simple terms, esports refers to the tournaments where a specific multiplayer video game is played competitively in front of spectators, typically by professional individuals and teams of gamers.

In recent years, the level of viewership associated with esports tournaments has increased exponentially. We’ll have a little more on this below, but this has also created a rising demand for both outright and more complex betting markets across the board.

Certainly, esports tournaments come in a number of different genres and formats, from those contested by individuals to others that involve the participation of skilled teams.

At present, this is creating a diverse, albeit relatively small, selection of esports betting markets at major sportsbooks in the UK, many of which are benefitting from increased awareness and far greater knowledge about how to leverage them successfully.

How Big is the Esports Betting Market in the UK?

As we’ve already touched on, the average esports viewership figures have increased sharply over the course of the last three years or so, to the point where a recent YouGov poll has revealed that as many as four million Brits (or 7% of all UK adults) have watched esports tournaments at some point in the past.

What’s more, an impressive 57% of this number are keen to enjoy more esports action in the future, highlighting the growing popularity of the marketplace and the potential for growing lucrative betting markets.

This has helped to support a marketplace that supported an impressive £111.5 million in Gross Valued Added (GVA) through 2019, while it’s thought that hosting a single, global esports event could generate as much as £12 million in GVA for the UK economy.

There’s clear growth in esports viewership and betting in the UK, although it’s fair to surmise that Britain lags behind other markets in these respects.

For example, more than four-in-10 (45%) of Chinese adults with online access have watched esports regularly, while the corresponding numbers for the US and Germany or 12% and 11% respectively.

From a global perspective, competitive video gaming is definitely becoming one of the most popular and preferred pastimes anywhere in the world. To this end, the number of frequent esports viewers in the world peaked at a little over 170 million in 2018, while around 222 million individuals watched competitions occasionally.

By 2022, estimates suggest that the global esports betting industry could be worth more than $2 billion as regular viewership continues to rise, while a projected CAGR of 13.1% over the course of the next five years could see this sum reach a whopping $13.05 billion by 2025.

Top Tips When Wagering on Esports Markets

At this stage, the question that remains is how can you take your first steps in the esports betting market while making the most of your bankroll? Here’s some tips from u:

• Esports has Much in Common with Traditional Sports Betting: While it may seem as though esports is considerably different to traditional sports betting, once you become accustomed to the former, you’ll find that it’s similar to wagering on disciplines such as horse racing and football. More specifically, you’ll be able to access the available markets as usual through your chosen sportsbooks, while the odds will be presented in a familiar and consistent manner. In fact, you’ll arguably be more likely to access esports live streams through sportsbooks, enabling you to make informed decisions in real-time.
• Keep it Simple: As a newcomer to the market, you’ll have to familiarise yourself with the specific tournaments and various betting verticals. However, even once you’ve learned about certain markets and how they work, you still need to keep your betting activity simple and ideally focus on outright wagers that are easy to understand. This way, you can optimise your chances of winning and ensure that your bankroll is used sensibly, while accumulating experience over time and ultimately diversifying into new and more complex betting markets.
• Focus on Areas of Expertise: Given the huge range of tournaments and diversity of gameplay on offer in the realm of esports, there’s an excellent chance that you’ll find a tournament or game that suits your existing knowledge base. For example, followers of the FIFA franchise and the international teams that compete in associated tournaments should prioritise such tournaments, before identifying betting markets that enable them to leverage their expertise (no matter how small this may be). Remember, any knowledge or understanding can afford you a competitive advantage in the world of esports betting, so it’s important to focus on this wherever possible.
• Create a Viable Bankroll Strategy: We close with a universal rule of sports betting, which reaffirms the importance of creating a viable bankroll management strategy. In the most fundamental terms, this involves creating a single betting unit of a specified value, while using this as a starting point from which you build all wagers. As a general rule, you should look to minimise your stake when backing outcomes with lengthy odds that are less likely to come in, while increasingly this incrementally when selecting winners that are amongst the favourites.