Although we may not be used to it completely, esports online betting has become a huge part of how we try our luck in to sports and esports, and it is pretty clear we are never going back to just the traditional way.
After a pandemic-induced boom, esports betting growth has partially leveled down. Nonetheless, as more sportsbooks recognize the significance of esports and incorporate it into their offerings, the need for better products has increased.
In the earlier days, the marketplace has fought the impression that online games and eSports are primarily leisure for children, a segment of the market with limited purchasing power. However, as the public’s attention to industry grew due to the pandemic, it became clear that its target audience was way larger and more diverse than it was initially thought to be.
According to a report by audience targeting business GlobalWebIndex, 30% of the Gaming audience in the United States are between the age of 25 and 34. The average gaming fan in the United States is 32 years old, making the sector even more appealing to bookmakers and other stakeholders. Furthermore, according to data analytics firm Statista, the esports audience exceeded 450 million viewers in 2021, with that number expected to rise to 577 million by 2024.
The thrill of betting in real-time
Esports’ digital nature places it in a unique situation in the betting world. Every action and movement in the game can be recorded as data points on the game’s servers. This allows for the emergence of engaging live markets that are just not conceivable in conventional wagering. However, for it to become an actual thing, the industry must first address the problem of latency.
In 2021, 1.6 billion Twitch and 517 million Youtube hours of esports live streams were watched on these well-known platforms. In most games, portions of the maps/battlefields are concealed, preventing competing teams from seeing their opponents’ movements at any given time. Video feeds are frequently delayed by 30-90 seconds to prevent players and coaches from peering from behind through the match’s live streams (also known as ghosting).
Real-time data coming straight from the server is required to establish a real-time betting experience. Match-fixing could occur if someone wants to offer odds or streams that are quicker than the actual esports streaming feeds. However, if a sportsbook creates odds based on delayed data, it may expose itself to arbitrage opportunities if other providers on the market have access to speedier data.
This is an issue that the business should ideally solve as a whole because it now impacts all esports sportsbooks and providers.
Conclusion
When it comes to predicting the growth of esports betting, nobody can tell with certainty how the cards will unfold in the future, but if one thing is sure, it’s that all the companies out there will be working 100% on building trust and legitimacy because those will be the pillars online betting cannot survive without.
If they can work things out through with the current issues, online betting will be one of the blocks that the world of esports will get built on.
