E-Sports and Betting

Introduction

Electronic Sports, or E-Sports as it is more commonly known, is the competitive gaming industry that is now collectively worth over a billion dollars. Many different games make up this sector covering all different categories and attracting some of the best players and teams from around the world to take part. These online E-Sports games are usually available to watch for free with the broadcasters such as YouTube and Twitch making their income through adverts. However, the presenters and the participants aren’t the only ones making money out of this hype, fans of their chosen E-Sports are making money through betting on the outcome of E-Sports games just as they would on a football game.

What does the future hold?

E-Sports weren’t recognised until early 2000, and the government of South Korea was the first to identify it. The sport in the early days was unregulated, and with most of the participants being under the age of 18, the fans fell into the same demographic, so they weren’t legally allowed to place a wager on the game at that age. However, we then saw the emergence of both real money betting and Bitcoin betting. Bitcoin betting allowed players to place a bet anonymously which opened the doors to those who wanted to have a punt but lived in a country where gambling was prohibited. As we get towards 2015 many of the more significant bookmakers were still very reluctant to enter the fray, but by 2017 the business opportunity seemed impossible to turn down.

Not only were punters allowed to place bets on the more popular e-Sports games such as Dota 2 and CS: GO, but they could also bet on the smaller games, and there was a diverse range of markets available, not simply for a team to win or lose. Going forward it is expected that the number of e-Sports games will continue to increase and set the amounts of different betting options and markets you’ll be able to have a punt on will also increase. This along with the rise in popularity of the sport with fans means that the future of E-Sports betting looks very bright indeed.

A final few words

Due to the surge in popularity of the industry of E-Sports, there have been many websites created that allow the public to have a punt or a bet on their favourite professional teams or players. For example, the largest tournament of the year so far is IEM Katowice where players have been able to bet on their favourite teams. This is where pundits predicted 2019 could be Astrall’s year, with the team being one of the best in the competition. Many follow these tipsters in the hope to reap a financial reward from their bet. In summary, the future of the industry looks better than it ever has before and there is only one way it is going and that is bigger than ever