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A guide to the growth and betting on eSports

Gambling on or around esports is a far bigger market than many believe. As the esports industry continues to grow, esports tournaments have been created to add to the already competitive gaming market. There is no doubt that placing esports bets is now one of the new favorite pastimes. Thousands of esports games are played daily with bookmakers offering competitive betting odds on every aspect of play.

With every major sporting event either postponed or cancelled because of COVID-19 in the past few years, the sports calendar has been shredded. Even the eSports events industry has not been left unscathed with the biggest eSports events going online rather than seated venue events. But eSports will come out of this a winner, with billions of people now used to spending longer at home. Due to this, more people are now familiar with esports betting sites as they look to make money from esports betting online.

Photo credit – Flickr

Our belief is that the viewership number for eSports will rocket in the next few years, and there are a few reasons why. First, people have become accustomed to working from home so are online all the time. Next, people who watch and bet on sports are filling that void by finding new markets. Finally, the NBA, The ATP World tour in tennis and Formula 1 are just three of the major sports organisations that have announced Virtual Leagues.

The most popular sports to bet on

These eSports leagues will draw fans in by the millions, and with that the betting market for eSports is going to get a massive boost.  The viewership numbers in eSports are fascinating – In 2017, there was a total audience 335 million, in 2018 the total audience size grew to 380 million and in 2019 it looks like that figure was over 450 million!  Goldman Sachs expects that eSports will have roughly the same viewership levels by 2022 as the NFL.

With that said, this article will cover all of the key information surrounding the esports betting industry. We will discuss how to place an esports bet, skin betting sites, the various esports betting markets and more.

The top betting sites in New Jersey

The peripheral industries

Apart from streaming and other services that will be rewarded by the eSports growth, eSports betting is possibly thee most exciting category in the regulated gambling industry. Couple this with the “normal sport” virtual leagues, U.S. sports betting market opening up state by state and you have a recipe for stratospheric growth.

The esports betting market is forecasted to grow massively over the next few years as more people become comfortable placing a bet on esports. The esports betting scene is thriving.

Ways to bet on eSports

There are the traditional eSports leagues such as Call of Duty Championships, Doha 2 Championships etc then the traditional sports eLeagues, all offer a number of different ways to bet. You can visit a traditional esports betting site to place your wagers.

Most states with a legal sports wagering industry will also have an esports betting legal market.

Real Money Betting

This is the closet for to traditional sports betting, put simply, money is placed on an outcome at agreed odds and you get paid out if you win.

The highest earning eSports players

Skin betting

A skin is a graphic or audio download which changes the appearance of characters in video games. They’re purely aesthetic – they don’t increase the character’s abilities or impact the outcome of the game

Skin betting is huge among eSports players and fans and involved using virtual currency or real money to trade items and things like enhancements between players.  Players can also use these items and currencies to gamble with to bet on the outcome of eSports contests as a replacement for real money.

The history of eSports

Fantasy betting

This is not technically betting, it’s more fantasy eSports as akin since fantasy sports for traditional sports. Sites such as DraftKings and FanDuel are renowned for their daily fantasy sports contests.

Challenge betting

Also known as head-to-head betting, this is where gamers compete against each other for real money or items and skins. A lot of gamers bet among themselves, and then settle up once their contest is over. There are also websites that organise this for players, they will charge the team or player a fee things a little more formally where the players and/or teams pay entry fees to enter a contest then pay out the winners at the end.

Nowadays, esports teams compete in tournaments representing professional franchises and clubs.

Choosing the right betting site

eSports betting sites

The are lot’s of current options available for eSports fans to bet.   You have legacy sportsbooks which nearly all have eSports betting options, then you have the more purist/dedicated eSports betting sites, and crypto betting offerings.   We strongly advise stay away from illegal offerings and sites/app operating illegally and stick to established and reliable betting sites.

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