Esportsonlinebets.com and eSports gambling

Esports betting is rather a thorny issue for a number of bookies today as they struggle through the mire of mutable regulations, and with game developers keeping gambling on electronic sports at arm’s length, navigating the complexities of online eSports betting quickly turns into an ordeal.

Esportsonlinebets.com snaps you out of the confusion and helps you make sense the mindboggling numbers of viewers tuning in to behold swanky eSports events. We will help you find out what has caused the proliferation of such occurrences in recent years. More than that, we will set you on a course to probe the proverbial waters of online eSports betting. Behold as countless many intelligence companies and gambling experts are turning to the industry with renewed interest. Online eSports betting is in the process of becoming a widely recognized and potent market force of unbridled potential, and we want you to have a go at it. Esportsonlinebets.com succeeds in trawling the Internet and collating the data to help you arrive at the right conclusions.

Esportsonlinebets.com navigates the current landscape of eSports betting and singles out the best bookies currently offering such services. If you are ready to pluck at the fount of eSports gambling riches, let us guide you gently albeit firmly through the mesh of betting options and help you find the most worth-your-time odds.

Read on to find out:

First, the backdrop.

Born in Wedlock: Esports online betting

To understand the industry better, we ought to take into consideration a passel of factors and establish a readable map to serve as a guidebook. First, acknowledge that wagering on the outcome of a video game derby is an occurrence unfolding at a cosmic expansion rate. As the landscape of eSports betting puffs quietly into existence, a handful of main trends are shaping up. Esportsonlinebets.com provides a further breakdown of today’s mainsprings of this newly-fangled industry. All e-Sports gambling today centres itself around two main categories of wagering with two sub-categories each:

Primary eSports gambling verticals:

• Esportsbooks betting – This kind of gambling involves dedicated websites where punters can choose from a number of valuable odds and place a bet on an eSports title (we have reviewed some popular operators here, namely, Betway, 888sport, 10bet, and Betfair).
• Skin betting – Skin betting refers to items obtained in-game and subsequently wagered at dedicated skin betting websites, such as Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) and Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) 2. Skins serve as a de facto currency and the skin betting industry has swollen to $7.4bn in 2016, by one estimate.

However, analysts have revised their forecasts following a string of scandals and crackdowns from game publishers, let alone piling pressure from regulators and law enforcement agencies.

Valve’s decision to issue cease and desist letters to major skin gambling websites had scared the market. More on the matter in the sections below.

Secondary verticals:

Fantasy eSports – It is similar to traditional fantasy sports websites, only real sports are swapped for their electronic counterparts;
Challenge sites – Challenge sites are akin to local coffee tournaments where players meet and greet, pay an entry fee and the winner takes a share of the prize pool, which is a percentage of the entry fees.

The “How To” of sports gambling bets

The hyperconnectivity of today’s gambling enthusiast allow them to even incidentally come across bits and bobs of information that could influence the outcome of how you place your bet. More specifically, as a gambling enthusiast in the realm of eSports you are also committed to the video games you are betting on. Or to put it in other words – you have spent sufficient amount of time mashing your keyboard playing the game you enjoy which has incidentally turned into a cultural phenomenon. Oh, glad tidings!

Speaking of hyperconnectivity, we ought to consider the fact that today eSports gamblers sport a hefty arsenal of tools that allow take better-informed decisions in the matter of moments. Twitch.tv and YouTube’s recently pioneered division dedicated to electronic sports have been a push in the right direction, allowing mere enthusiasts and hardened gamblers to make the most of either their affinity for eSports or moolah respectively.

So, how to earn a pretty penny? Does the term ‘streaming service’ ring a bell?

In 2014, Amazon bought Twitch.tv for the not-to-be-sneezed-at $970m in ready cash. Since then the streaming services has taken a dim eye on gambling and those types of commercials being aired on its streamers’ channels. Despite Twtich’s self-professed integrity, eSports bettors have been able to follow the main teams and professionals they have been pegging their cash on.

Not surprising, provided that streaming services the likes of Twitch and YouTube’s latest project will soon rival traditional media in terms of revenues from advertising. Not to mention that various brands are already looking for a way in on the market.

By being up to date with developments in one’s desired field, eSports punters carry a significant advantage. Not overly dependent on bookies’ proposed odds, these perceptive chance-takers are now earning a bit more over their less dedicated brethren.

What are our rules of thumb for you when it comes to placing wagers on eSports? Here is a short list of things to keep your eyes peeled for:

• Are you satisfied with the betting odds offered by a certain bookie? Are there better odds elsewhere? Instead of committing to one website alone, try to scan the recommended bookies as they offer varying odds at different time slots and events;
• Consider spending some time familiarizing yourself with particular games you bet on or refer directly to the articles we have prepared for you for today’s leading eSports title;
• Oftentimes, personal events in the life of a team member or a professional gamer may have an effect on how they perform throughout a tournament;
• Try to study up matches when it comes to particular teams with history;

There is a fair bit of number crunching when it comes to gambling. But what sets eSports gambling apart is that you can easily rely on your gut and focus on the best odds out there, and your efforts will surely be rewarded.

Bet on eSports: An unfathomable behemoth

Esportsbooks have been loath to embrace skin betting, and as it turns, with a good reason too. Beyond the dubious legality of skin betting, gambling on the outcome of eSports has been the most potent driver of revenues for bookies, and therefore their key area of interest.

Finding a proper gauge for the future of the betting industry is taxing. Market intelligence companies such as Newzoo have tried running comprehensive analyses of the eSports industry as a whole briefly mentioning the associated eSports betting, which may well be on its way of becoming an even bigger industry than electronic sports. Newzoo projects that the eSports economy will grow to $698m, a year-on-year growth of 41.3%. Others the total handle of eSports gambling websites in 2016 at $649m. Looking further down the road, total revenues from eSports gambling will tower over the conceivable and reach $1.488bn in 2020, according to Newzoo. Nevertheless, statistics are in a state of constant flux, and with those, experts are bustling to reflect any change in the legal landscape and adjust their forecasts.

Luckily, there are emerging trends that seem to have some staying power, and mostly where video game titles are concerned. Esportsonlinebets.com has used the survey of Narus Advisors/Eilers & Krejcik Gaming to break down the total eSportsbook handle by title.

CS:GO is nowhere near as dominant in terms of cash betting as it is in terms of skin betting, but it is the second most-prominent pillar of the industry, trailing behind the Massive Online Battle Arena (MOBA) League of Legends (LoL). 

The above-mentioned titles are not alone when it comes to eSports betting. There is a proud band of outsiders that pique punters’ fancy that nevertheless account for a smaller part of the pie: Call of Duty, Halo, Smite, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, WoW, FIFA.

At Esportsonlinebets.com, we shared our two cents about each of those mostly untapped betting grounds and discussed what the market and growth potential are.

Esportsbooks do not seem to be the only ones cottoning on the eSports bonanza. In Esportsonlinebets.com’s FIFA Esports: A long story, we discussed the mounting interest on the part of real world clubs in sports’ digitalised brethren Bookies are increasingly aware of unfettered growth of the segment and the not-fully exploited potential of this nascent industry. With the Olympic Committee now considering including eSports event, albeit taking a dim view of esports betting, eSportsbooks stand a real chance of bridging the gap between physical and digital sports, and adding more bodies to their cohort of punters gambling on the outcome of video game matches. What we may describe as cross-sell potential could be a fillip to the revenue stream of bookies.

The buzz around the upsurge of the eSports industry has whet the appetites of everyone from traditional media to big online retailers and sponsors. Twitch.tv is beginning to rival traditional media as a driver of paid content and the online streaming platform is easily going to overshadow the more-established rivals in terms of advertising revenues. Amazon, cognizant of this newly-fangled trend, forked out $970m in ready cash to acquire the streaming platform in 2014, no questions asked. However, esports betting is banned from Twitch.tv/ Meanwhile, Forbes is trying to advise investors looking to acquire stakes in professional eSports organizations.

A closer look at how opposing actors divvied up the eSports industry in 2016 is available in Newzoo’s report:

After the eSport betting, a respite

While piling pressure may somewhat dampen the potential of the eSports betting segment, the phenomenon of people shelling cash on the outcome of video games played professionally, still in its infancy, is slated to explode. Esportsonlinebets.com has written extensively about some of the most popular and a few of the less-ballyhooed titles hailed as the groundwork of eSports and online eSports betting. So, where do you get to ploy the craft of the keen observer and hammer the hot iron of betting odds? Let us have a looksee at a quick statistics that details how much money-exchange has been going in plain sight.  The following charts account for two of the staple titles of the eSports industry, CS:GO and LoL, and how they rank on 10Bet, Bet365 and Betway in terms of placed wagers:

More often than not, video games are blamed for the ills of the world. There is a correlation between, say, non-working youths, and a spike of aspiring would-be video gamers, or as any wisecrack of a parental unit would say wastrels. Ambitious no goods or otherwise, the opposite is also true, with a number of successful, both socially and economically, youths opting out of the ennui of workaday lives for the thrill of conquering pixelated battlegrounds, think of Ben ‘Merlini’ Wu, a professional DOTA 2 player and commentator.

Demographics plays an essential part in identifying what is what in the e Sports betting industry. Drawing from the famed Newzoo study, you are most likely between the age of 21 and 35, and male. The study offers some interesting insight in what shapes up to be a rather lucrative market indeed. Much to the disappointment of dour and stern-looking grown-ups, you, eSports buffs, have plenty of disposable income. Newzoo’s study shows some interesting numbers. Classifying eSports viewers in two main groups, enthusiasts and occasional dabblers who tune in to watch events. The tally is:

• 58% of occasional viewers are employed full-time;
• 62% of enthusiasts have a full-time job;

More tempting still is the earning potential of the two demographics:

• 47% of occasional viewers and 50% of enthusiasts are deemed high-income earners. Yummy!

It seems to be a most auspicious period for eSports as a whole, with brands intensifying their investment in popular gaming titles and developers lending their support for the future proliferation of their brainchildren as linchpins of this brave new world.

What about actual betting, then?

The folly of eSports betting

Did you know? The NFL processed $13bn in sports bets, but the Fantasy betting around it may have raked in zonking profits of $50bn. Fantasy betting being another major vertical of eSports as a whole, Newzoo estimates that eSports betting may be a colossus far superseding its meagre creator. Where this betting frenzy finds a relief, you would ask yourself. Simply put, there is a number of well-established bookies that have overcome great legal odds and navigated the murky waters of the virgin landscape.

You are already familiar with some of the upscale betting venues out there, being the diligent student of institutions and reading through our pieces about the eSports operators. Providing some context in the matter, we ought to say that not so long ago, only a handful would venture out and offer betting in a segment which has been dubious from the standpoint of legality.  

So, globally we are faced with an increasing number of bookies, some more experienced, and others just eager to pry open the cash trove.

Regularly updated and various odds

The above-mentioned bookies are traditionalists. As someone who has been around gambling for a long now, you probably know that skin gambling and fantasy gambling are potent trends which have been raking in massive profits. However, they are also more liable aspects of eSports gambling. With the industry as a whole not quite in the legal sweet spot of good old Uncle Sam, skin wagering, for example, has been cited as a culprit in abetting underage gambling. Similarly, Valve drew ire from a handful of ticked parents who found out their kids had been losing thousands of dollars’ worth of skins on gambling websites. As a result, Valve decided to put the crackdown on some of the world’s best known communities offering skin gambling. The repercussions that followed made any analyst who had the mischance of cobbling together a forecast of the industry prior to August 2016 achingly revise their estimates.

According to a survey carried out by Narus Advisors on skin gambling, the following projections were proffered for 2016 prior to the clampdown.

The Grand Finale of Esports Betting

Is nowhere in sight. If anything, the industry will continue to expand at a good clip, drawing masses of spendthrift enthusiasts who will seek to revitalize their interest in the eSports industry as a whole. What better way of laying down a bet to support your favorite team while clinching a hefty profit in the process.

Even though the skin gambling and fantasy industry have taken heavy blows by regulators, we believe that, as the industry matures, this sort of betting will return in full spate and some of the better-established bookies will manage to bank on the fact swiftly.

That leaves you, the gambler. We encourage you to continue and inform yourself. Stay ahead of the curve and place the occasional wagers. And most of all, if you are not here just to make profit (which is not shameful in itself), then continue to enjoy our pieces on eSports and do not miss your favorite tournaments, now streaming on Twitch.tv.