Why esports gambling is on the rise

In the few short years that esports has been officially recognized as a sport, it’s spawned a whole new industry, esports gambling. This industry has been gaining momentum ever since bookies realized that the niche of online betting could be transferred to this emerging market.

While esports tournaments doesn’t yet have crazy high viewership numbers of the FIFA World Cup or Olympics, there’s plenty of evidence that viewership on the whole is on the rise. And with it, the number of available markets that this viewership can place bets on is increasing daily. 

Here are five reasons why esports betting is on the rise and could even outshine traditional sports betting one day:

1. Esports betting can deliver instant data

We can’t just look at the rise in popularity for betting on esport events and tournaments being purely down to the fact that esports is gaining momentum. There’s other reasons such as the sheer amount of low latency data someone betting on these events can get compared to traditional sports betting.

This data is used in supplying odds and determining the chances of certain outcomes. In traditional sports betting, the odds have to be updated manually for every situation that happens in a game of the sport. This can lead to delays in the odds and even human error.

WIth esports, everything is run off of machines, allowing data to be received and communicated almost instantly. Minimizing the need for manual input of data gives both the bookies and the player huge amounts of pinpoint accurate information exactly when they need it, allowing for an overall smoother experience overall.

2. Integrity of data 

Information is the single most important factor in the gambling industry, especially if you want to make money. Bookmakers need to know a second by second play of whatever they offer markets on, and the people betting need to know the odds of these plays from the bookmaker to make rapid decisions about bets.

As we talked about in the point above, the fact that machines are handling most of the data with methods that extract data and distribute it automatically allows for less mistakes and faster data processing, leading to a higher level of overall integrity.

3. Bigger range of inplay bets

Again riding on the back of the fact that bookies can get hold of valuable information instantly, with esports betting they get access to a broader range of in play bets. 

With traditional sports, there’s only so many options that can be manually verified or handled at any one time and adding more markets simply adds a whole other level of complexity to an already complex system. You simply don’t find this problem with esports betting.

When we talk about betting on esports, different games have totally different and varied bets that can be placed, which can lead to some crazy and wild markets thanks to the many different genres of games.

4. Access to engaging and entertaining betting strategies

Any aid gambler will know that the more you know about the sport you bet on, the better your chances are of winning bets you place on that sport. With sports like horse racing and F1, you’ve got variables such as the weather, course/grass condition etc that you need to take account of.  This information throws an enjoyable factor into the betting as it’s more information that can be gathered, leading to a higher chance of a winning bet.

Esports gambling has an absolute plethora of these little variable data points that gamblers can take into account when they want to place a bet. When it comes to tactical competitive games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, You’ve things like the health of a player, how many respawns they’ve had, real time map updates with positioning and tactical advantages. 

On top of that you’ve got competitive team rosters, each individual player’s strengths and weaknesses in the teams, the actual game itself as well as a bucketload of other points. All of this information can be used by both the bookmakers and the people betting to add a level of information that makes the experience more than just simply picking which team name you like the most!

5. New ways to stake

Finally, a few different esport production companies have taken a step forward in terms of the ways players stake. ESL, or the Electronic Sports League, actually allows fans to stake on their favourite games and teams through digital assets.

NFT’s or Non-Fungible Tokens are all the rage at the minute, and the ESL has capitalized on this. These NFT’s are run off of the blockchain, the same as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, and other popular cryptocurrencies. This allows for a level of transparency that traditional methods of staking cannot and ties in perfectly with the digital nature of esports gambling.