The Rise of Esports Betting – How Close is it to the Mainstream?

Posted by Harry Kane on Tuesday, February 1, 2022

There’s no doubt that esports represented a significant growth market through 2020 and 2021, with this trend showing no sign of abating any time soon and seeming to continue at pace through much of this year.

This trend is also prevalent across the globe, as both participation and viewerships rate continue to increase at an exponential rate. Currently, despite the growth in the UK, other markets across the globe are far more sophisticated and further along in the journey, including (unsurprisingly) North America.

But just how common is esports betting, and is this inching closer to the consumer mainstream with every passing year? We’ll explore this below, while asking whether 2023 could see this assertion become a viable reality.

A Brief Look at the Esports Marketplace

If we cast our eyes over the global marketplace, we can see that the total esports audience grew by approximately 495 million people through 2020.

This represented year-on-year growth of 11.7% when compared with 2019’s figures, with this demonstrated despite the wider impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the disruption that was felt in alternative (albeit similar) markets.

Interestingly, esports enthusiasts (222.9 million of them) will make up nearly half of this number, with casual viewership up by 10.8% over the course of the previous 12 months.

In the bustling North American market alone, the number of esports’ viewers and customers peaked at 29.6 million this year, up by further double-digit growth of 11.5% when compared with 2021. This has largely been attributed to the continued pop-culturisation of esports and increased sophistication of competitive sports games stateside.

Outside of the US, China remains the largest market from the perspective of revenue, with total income of $385.1 million recorded during 2020. During half one of 2022, this particular global niche generated total revenues worth as much as $11.3 billion, while this figure is likely to increase exponentially through the remainder of 2022 and beyond.

Elsewhere, market in the UK remains strong and particularly buoyant, while this entity also offers considerable scope for remote esports betting and wagering going forward. According to Statista, revenue in the UK’s esports market is projected to reach $43.33 million in 2022, while further forecasts hint a CAGR of 10.53% between now and 2027 and a total value of $71.47 million at the end of this period.

How Popular is Esports Betting?

Interestingly, the rise of esports has been noted by iconic football owner and Real Madrid chairman Florentino Perez, who recently claimed that young people are no longer interested in traditional games such as football. Of course, this was the same man who threw his weight behind the ill-fated European Super League, but time will tell whether he is a visionary pioneer or someone who regularly backs the wrong horse!

Interestingly, Perez claims that the perceived lack of interest in traditional football games was one of the main reasons behind the ill-fated Super League, as he looked to revitalise modern football and create a scenario where it can compete with esports and similarly ambitious verticals in the future.

Certainly, most esports content is consumed live via sites such as YouTube and Twitch, through the type of subscription-based viewing that will continue to shape sports broadcasting in the future.

Esports is also quickly catching up with other events that are synonymous with online betting, with data released by Statista highlighting a 50% increase in the market value of esports wagering during 2020 alone. This trend has continued at pace (although the extent of growth has slowed slightly), with this making sense given the rising viewership figures and how the competitive nature of esports gives rise to multiple betting markets.

Clearly, this establishes esports betting as an increasingly lucrative and maturing market for sportsbooks, particularly as a handful of cutting-edge virtual casino brands are now offering content that’s inspired by esports games and activity.

What’s more, the sheer range of esports betting market continues to scale and diversify over time, with the single most popular verticals and betting markets focused on ‘Massive Online Battle Arena’ (or MOBA) titles such as Dota 2, League of Legends and Arena of Valor. These conflict-inspired games have clear competitive elements between participating players, creating the opportunity to wager on a tournament winner, specific map or round winners and even correct score forecasts for events.

There’s some crossover here with similarly popular sports tournaments that revolve around games such as those in the FIFA franchise. Here, individuals or teams of players can compete for potentially lucrative and high value tournaments, with this action underpinning popular and universal betting markets such as match winner and over/under markets for winning margins and total goals scored.

The Last Word

There are numerous advantages for sportsbooks who embrace and offer esports betting markets, aside from being adopters and stealing a march on their closest rivals. After all, the sheer growth in esports audience should be capturing the attention of betting brands, while games like FIFA can also be leveraged to incentivise football fans and create an exciting range of new, virtual betting markets.

Also, esports is different from traditional disciplines in that it runs almost exclusively on digital devices, effectively compiling its own datasets that can be utilised and subsequently monetised in the process.

Such information will be relevant for people in and around the betting industry, while it can be subsequently used by sportsbooks to set accurate pre-game and in-play odds across a range of highly markets.

There’s also the opportunity for advanced in-play betting in the near-term, meaning that we’ve nearly approached the time where esports betting will become a key focal point of the wagering mainstream. Sure, this day hasn’t quite arrived yet, but there’s no doubt that esports and esports wagering is inching ever closer to the consumer mainstream with every passing day.