Online casinos are trying to attract new customers with promotions such as no deposit casino bonuses, while sports betting sites are trying to gain members by offering free bets. But there is now a new player in the online gambling industry: esports betting. In other words, all existing gambling services now need to innovate by taking this new player into consideration, as esports betting is becoming one of the most popular types of online gambling. So what is the reason for this change? How did esports betting start and when did it become so popular? Below we answer these questions for you.
The Short History of eSports Betting
Esports is a special type of sport that is based on competitive video games. The playing field in these games is made up of digital maps, and the athletes just sit on a chair: They play by controlling virtual characters. The history of esports is quite old, and it is possible to put all kinds of video games that can be played against another player in this category. However, we can say that electronic sports in today’s sense started in Asian countries at the end of the ’90s. Starcraft and Warcraft III are known as the first games that started this trend. In the 2000s, esports gained global popularity with the Counter-Strike game. Today, there are even games developed just for this purpose: Overwatch, Hearthstone, Rainbow Six, DOTA 2, League of Legends… All these games have global leagues and tournaments continue throughout the year.
We can say that esports betting started in the late ’90s with Starcraft and Warcraft III tournaments. After a couple of years, due to the popularity of Counter-Strike, some online betting sites began to offer betting options for the most popular esports games. However, since most of the bettors in those years were “old-school”, they considered betting on digital games a “childish” job. For this reason, esports betting was not among the mainstream betting types until the mid-2000s. It is not possible to say that there was a “boom” in this period because bettors were not used for esports: They did not even understand what these games were.
A New Generation of Gamblers Is Coming
However, as of 2010, esports betting started to get more and more popular. The main reason for this is the emergence of a new generation of gamblers. Those who played these games as a child started to bet when they grew up. This new generation of gamblers was different from the old-school gamblers: They have met the digital world from the moment they were born and tried these games themselves. In other words, they not only know the rules, they can analyze everything they see on the screen.
For this reason, the number of sites that offer both free games online slots, and esports betting suddenly increased, and even the big players in the industry started to offer this option. Moreover, cyber sports also had an important advantage: It did not have a specific season. For example, football matches are not played during the summer months, or ice hockey is played only at a certain time each year. Esports games, on the other hand, continue throughout the year: There are so many games and organizations that it is possible to find multiple events to bet on each week. For all these reasons, esports betting started to become more and more popular.
Esports Now Pays More Than Ever
However, the “boom” we talked about happened mainly in 2019. There are two reasons why their popularity has started to grow at a notable rate this year. The first is the increase in tournament rewards. Tournaments like ESL One now award more than a million dollars to participating teams. Even the reward amounts in smaller organizations range from $ 500,000 to $ 750,000. In other words, esports is starting to gain attention as “serious” organizations, and more and more bettors are noticing its presence. The second reason is, as we all know, the COVID19 outbreak. Almost all mainstream sports matches and leagues have been canceled due to epidemic measures. However, esports has been minimally affected as many tournaments have started allowing participation online. In other words, athletes could play without leaving their homes. The bettors could not bet on mainstream sports, but it was still possible to bet on cyber sports. As you can imagine, this has greatly increased interest in esports betting, and even old-school bettors have become interested in them. Although the main cause of the esports betting boom is the epidemic, you can be sure that this increased attention will continue after the epidemic: The world is now a different place, and the new generation of gamblers is more interested in everything digital.
