The term eSports was not big several years ago because there were not a lot of gamers competing in different events for real money. Even though this industry is not new, it has become way more sought-after lately.
Nowadays, there are many different kinds of games qualifying as eSports, and this industry has a key role in another business – online betting. All of the world’s premium betting websites, such as the Mystake sportsbook allow people to choose from many different options, which means that gamers use them a lot. Although a lot of sites may offer their clients the chance to punt on eSports, not all of them are the same, so users need to decide which website works best for them.
Speaking of betting on eSports, this thing was not that popular a couple of years ago. However, things are completely different now because some of the leading games have a lot of fans, and people require more than just basic options. Let’s go through a few things that have had an effect on the popularity of eSports wagering.
There are just more things to choose from
The eSports industry 20 years ago was nothing like we have today because there were just a couple of games that qualified as eSports, and people couldn’t bet on them. Back then, gamers could compete in things like Counter-Strike 1.6 and Quake, as well as WarCraft III and StarCraft. Today, there are tons of eSports that offer a lot of things, so it’s no surprise that people who like to bet on sports are more interested in them.
Aside from WarCraft III, which has occasional tournaments, none of the games that were popular back then are available now. Some, such as Counter-Strike, now have an incredibly popular new version, but gamers also follow the likes of Dota 2 and LoL. We can also include CoD, World of Warcraft, Overwatch 2, Fortnite, and more.
Bookies started paying a lot more attention to eSports
The fact that there were only a few eSports titles out there and a handful of online bookmakers for players to choose from meant that websites did not allow their clients to wager on those things. Thankfully, the situation is different today because all of the premier sites for wagering on sports markets have at least a couple of options for computer games.
Besides the growing number of eSports betting fans, bookmakers started paying more attention to those things because of their prize pools. Some of the biggest events so far have had more than a $20M reward, which is really impressive for a computer game. The big prizes attract a lot of attention, including from online bookmakers.
Some companies realize the importance of eSports for the industry’s future, so they even started investing in it. Besides sponsoring different kinds of competitions, a lot of the premium names in iGaming also help specific teams by sponsoring them. Unsurprisingly, this has a role in attracting additional players.
Live streams
The last secret behind the popularity of eSports is because of a feature available on most gambling sites – live streaming. This option lets people watch the eSports matches they bet on in real time, allowing them to have a way better experience. Even though this feature is also available in other sports, most bookmakers will only offer it in specific situations, which is not the case with eSports.
Almost all eSports matches have a link where you can watch them live because betting websites work in conjunction with the main streaming platform for games. This helps the eSports business a lot and online betting operators are more than happy to take advantage of it.