Sunday August 25, 2019

How to engage with the eSports bettors

UltraPlay’s Esports Head Trader, Dragomir Ivanov, discusses the need for esports suppliers to continually innovate their offering

Esports has grown as an entertainment phenomenon, with around 400 million enthusiasts and occasional viewers around the world. The 2018 League of Legends World Championship attracted more than 74 million viewers. Meanwhile, The International 2019, the annual Dota 2 world championship, gathered more than 50 million viewers, and this year’s prize pool broke an eSports record by surpassing $30m. A recent report by Newzoo suggests the eSports industry could be worth $1.7bn by 2021, and that will surely result in an increase in interest from a betting perspective.

Betting on eSports was a logical step a few years ago that we thought would interest the growing number of viewers and fans of esports worldwide. We started offering eSports pre-match and live odds. By allowing people to bet on a specific team or a player they think will win the particular tournament or match, we started and enlarged a very profitable gambling vertical.

Coverage

A few years ago, eSports was an exclusive gambling vertical to be present on websites. Now, nearly all the leading sportsbooks and online casinos have included some eSports betting options. While some of these How to engage with eSports bettors UltraPlay’s eSports Head Trader, Dragomir Ivanov, discusses the need for eSports suppliers to continually innovate their offering operators fail to offer some of the more niche esports tournaments and titles, at least the golden trio in eSports betting – CS:GO, Dota 2 and League of Legends – should be provided. Not all tournaments attract a lot of bettors, but with the right approach, players will know coverage is constantly expanding. For the low-tier events, there is often no information, but we try to find the best source and develop connections with the organisers. The low-tier events keep the bettors’ attention during the time between big events.
Live betting on eSports was once considered unreliable and risky. It takes a lot of knowledge and experience to grasp the trends and transform them into a profitable business; not only because there are multiple variables, but also because the dynamics are much bigger than in regular sports.

User Experience

Diversified markets are at the core of offering an ultimate eSports betting experience. By constantly adding new and exciting opportunities for players to place their bets on, eSports betting brands will develop a strong bond with their community of eSports fans.

Data

Most people who are interested in eSports watch live streams of a favorite professional player or a tournament channel where the matches are streamed. Those kinds of channels use ads for deposit promotions or a live odds widget. Esports rules are heavily impacted by the upgrades of the game itself, which makes it very dynamic and exciting to watch and bet on. From a trading prospective, those kinds of changes require in-depth knowledge and experience to manage and provide the best odds to our clients.

This has been published on the August issue of Trafficology.