As thousands of sporting activities were suspended, some professional athletes channeled their major involvement in electronic sports (esports) to help maintain fan engagement. 

Since gaming is an activity you can do from home, there has been an explosion online regarding esports during the pandemic.

Hence, most esports companies have seen booming sales during the first quarter. Research from Gamesindustry.biz shows that 50 key esports markets rose by 63%.

Role of esports betting

Esports betting is not left out here. Yes, thousands of sporting activities have been canceled, but betting has just followed suit and adapted to esports markets. 

Online betting sites have responded by increasing betting markets across the various games and has become widely accepted as a good alternative to real-life sporting events during COVID-19. This list on betting site OLBG.com highlights the most recommended bookmakers to bet with.

Platforms that focuses on esports, such as Unikrn and Luckbox, saw the 1st ripple of esports betting outbreak. They recorded tremendous growth in entire bets played on their site, since the lockdown. 

Even though some traditional sports are returning, some industry analysts anticipate that the increase in esports betting will continue to boom, and it was backed up with solid data.

10 bookmakers were researched within March and April of 2020, and the result showed that there was a 40x expansion in esports betting, while two main esports are leading the pack, FIFA, and NBA2K. 

Betting companies in the United Kingdom also saw a sharp increase in esports betting. Research from the UK gambling commission showed the esports betting market grew by 124% from March to April. 

Esports post-COVID-19 future

Though the world of traditional sport is getting back to normal, there has been a puzzling question of whether esports will continue at this pace. 

Traditional sports events like soccer have reopened, giving bookmakers a chance to attract their customers back, but esports’ light won’t fade away. 

Luckbox CEO, Quentin Martin, claims there will be automatic increase in size because of COVID-19. He said that there were some people that didn’t know about esports previously, or heard of it but no deep knowledge of what it was, but now most people have gained knowledge of it. 

COVID-19 has built opportunities for esports companies to strike really hard now. Gamblers have been experimenting with esports and seeing how awesome it is to play with. Bookmakers are now finding out that the hunger for esports has been established and it’s increasing. 

Worldwide, Esports betting revenue is ready to double from $7 billion in 2019 to over $14 billion in 2020 reported by market researcher ProdegeMR and consumer research agency 2CV. This figure shows how esports betting is taking advantage of the pandemic. 

Esports has proven to have the ability to adjust within the pandemic. It came as a solution to operators, as it reduced the revenue they lost from traditional sports. Having seen the need for plan B, directors will likely want to develop esports as a necessary sector for their gambling platforms.

Pre-COVID; many bookmakers never thought of adding esports betting to their category. But the numbers suggest, esports is here to stay.