E-sports and competitive video gaming have absolutely exploded in popularity over the last decade. Live streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube Gaming have allowed fans to easily spectate their favorite pro gamers and teams. This surging interest has led to the creation of numerous professional leagues across various game titles at NinjaCasino.
Just as traditional sports like football and basketball have betting markets, so too have popular e-sports titles like League of Legends, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Call of Duty, Overwatch and more. The rapid growth of e-sports has given rise to a thriving new segment for bookmakers and betting sites.
Surge in E-Sports Popularity
E-sports events and tournaments have seen their viewership numbers skyrocket year after year. For example, the 2018 League of Legends World Championship drew over 100 million unique viewers. The 2019 tournament topped that with peak concurrent viewership exceeding 3.9 million.
Similarly, the annual Dota 2 tournament The International has smashed its own viewership records annually. The International 2019 hit a peak viewership of over 1.9 million, a 21% increase from the year prior according to Esports Charts.
These soaring viewership figures demonstrate the tremendous interest in competitive gaming. As the fanbase expands, so too do the opportunities for the e-sports betting industry.
Growth of E-Sports Betting Options
Many major bookmakers like Betway, Bet365 and William Hill now offer odds on e-sports matches and tournaments. Additionally, specialist e-sports betting sites have launched to cater specifically to this burgeoning market. These include Unikrn, GG.bet, Buff.bet and many others.
These bookmakers offer an expanding selection of betting markets across dozens of popular e-sports titles. Fans can wager on match winners, handicaps, over/under total maps or rounds, winning margins, player performance props and more.
As an example of the growth, popular CS:GO skin betting site CS:GO Lounge peaked at nearly 9 million monthly active users in 2016 per Esports Insider. While skin betting has declined significantly since then due to regulatory crackdowns and Valve bans, real money e-sports betting continues its upward trajectory.
E-Sports Betting Market Projections
E-sports betting is still in its infancy, yet is already generating substantial betting handle and revenue. Market research firm Newzoo projected in 2017 that the yearly gross e-sports betting handle would reach $23.5 billion USD by 2020.
They later updated that figure in October 2018 to an estimated range of $30 to $50 billion over the same period. To put those numbers into perspective, Nevada’s sportsbooks took $5 billion in bets in 2018 to give an idea of the relative size.
While less optimistic than Newzoo’s estimates, UK bookmaker association UKGC still projected over $12 billion per year in e-sports bets by 2020 in an October 2017 report.
Regardless of whose growth forecasts prove more accurate, the consensus is clear – e-sports betting is growing at a breakneck pace and will soon be a multi-billion dollar industry if it isn’t already.
Factors Driving E-Sports Betting Growth
There are numerous factors fueling the rapid growth of e-sports betting:
- Mainstream acceptance driving more fans to e-sports
- Increased coverage on sites like ESPN and on TV
- Ever-growing prize pools attracting more pro players
- More leagues & tournaments organized by game publishers
- Live streaming making events more accessible to fans
- Greater variety of betting options at traditional bookies
- More jurisdictions regulating and taxing e-sports betting
As these trends continue, it paints a very bright picture for the future of e-sports wagering. Expect bettors’ options to expand across titles, events and bet types in coming years.
Evolving Regulatory Landscape
One of the biggest open questions surrounding the future of e-sports betting is regulation. Certain jurisdictions have been proactive in introducing licensing frameworks and oversight. The UK, Malta, Denmark, Spain, France, Australia, and some US states have regulated e-sports betting in some form.
However other territories have been slower to act or still have outright bans. For example, South Korea, Japan and China have large e-sports fanbases but strict prohibitions against gambling on competitive gaming. As more countries introduce regulatory legislation, it will spur further growth in this nascent industry.
Conclusion
E-sports betting has already witnessed stratospheric growth over the last several years. However, it still seems to just be scratching the surface of its total addressable market. With ever-increasing fanship, viewership numbers and betting handle, competitive gaming wagers appear poised for even greater growth in the years ahead.
As media coverage, advertising revenue, sponsorships and prize purses continue expanding, so too will fans’ engagement with e-sports betting. Expect to see full-blown mainstream acceptance of e-sports betting in the near future.