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Coronavirus Has Caused A Boom In Esports Betting

• With all traditional sporting events on hold across the world thanks to the coronavirus pandemic many gambling fans have turned to esports, and as a result bookmakers are seeing a massive increase in esports betting.

By: Mike Stubbs

While esports events have still been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, most competitions are still taking place online, meaning no one has to put themselves at risk to continue playing. The digital nature of esports makes this incredibly easy to do, and as a result it is pretty much the only sports adjacent competition that is still happening on a regular basis. 

This has resulted in many fans who would normally bet on more traditional sports turning their attention to the world of esports and they are now placing bets on competitive gaming.

“All of our key performance indicators have been through the roof in the past three months,” says Quentin Martin, CEO of Luckbox, an esports gambling site. “Turnover has risen to almost 13 times that seen in November 2019, while deposits are up 10x since then. The uptick is across the board and globally. As well as an increase in registrations, we’ve noticed an increase in average bet size, almost double since February.”

But it’s not just consumers who are focusing more on the world of esports betting. With no sports to look for sponsors and investors are also investing more into the esports side of things during this time, looking to capitalize on the boom that is currently happening. 

“Clearly, these are challenging times for many people across the world but, for many, esports and gaming is a welcome distraction,” says Martin. “As well as an increase in customers and betting activity, we’ve seen a huge level of interest from potential investors, who are realizing that esports is resilient to many of the forces that affect traditional sports, not least COVD-19 and a potential recession.”

Typically in most esports it is agreed that when matches are played online there is more potential for major upsets, be it because of technical issues, poor connections or simply players being more comfortable in their own homes. While this certainly makes for more interesting matches, it also helps out the bookmakers, who credit this as another reason for their improved profits during this time. 

“Our data shows that we see an increased number of upsets when moving from LAN to online,” says Martin. “It’s especially noticeable for favorites in odds ranges 1.2 to 1.3 and 1.4 to 1.5, where the trend is clear. There are respectively 6.81% and 11.02% more upsets since most events were forced online due to the pandemic. From our point of view, this is certainly better for the bottom line and we see an increase in profit margins.”

Of course the pandemic won’t last forever, and when traditional sports returns so too will the massive amounts that are gambled on them across the world every day, but for those bookmakers like Luckbox who specialize in esports, it is clear that this pandemic will actually have a long term benefit for their business. 

“Undoubtedly, the lack of traditional sports has prompted more fans to consider esports and it’s realistic to expect that, when sports eventually return, a lot of those fans will go back to the games they know best,” says Martin. “However, the potential of esports betting is well documented and these past few months have brought that into sharper focus, accelerating the numbers. I think the growth level won’t sustain, but the uplift will. A lot of fans of traditional sports have been exposed to the excitement of esports for the first time and, hopefully, they like what they see and will be sticking around.”

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikestubbs/2020/05/13/coronavirus-has-caused-a-boom-in-esports-betting/#45ce220a6b0a

Tags: EA sports, egaming, esports, Fortnite, nasdaq