Overall, the number of applications sent has been minimal, with the most coming in 2020 as a result of the pandemic and traditional sports leagues not playing because of COVID-19. Nevada sportsbooks have yet to look to capitalize on the increased interest in Esports.Īccording to Watkins, there have not been any Esports applications this year sent to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. “The big question is if the gambling industry knows how to leverage this massive sport, and I think sportsbook operators are conflicted.įirst of all, they have a lot going on with getting into new jurisdictions, trying to get their customer acquisition and dealing with all sorts of things, and bringing in a new sport may not be on top of their lists.” Lack of Esports Interest in Nevada “(Sportsbook operators) know (Esports) is big,” he said. When asked what part of the gaming industry has the biggest challenge with the growth of Esports betting, Abarbanel and Nevada Gaming Control Board member Brittnie Watkins picked the regulators.īoth cited the difficulty that comes with regulating something as unique as Esports which requires a different set of knowledge and understanding of how a product works and then the specifics of Esports and betting.īut Seth Schorr, CEO and Co-Founder of Fifth Street Gaming believes it is the sportsbook operators who face the largest task when it comes to Esports wagering. It really does set them a part in terms of how they access the demographic that is interested in games and Esports, and it’s really not something that our gambling world has managed to do.” Sportsbooks Yet to Capitalize on Esports Growth The marketing is focused on Esports and games, it’s not focused on bettors. “But the other thing they do is everything they do in outreach and marketing. It’s basically like betting on the outcome of an event that has a predetermined outcome. It’s not necessarily centered around Esports bettors, but they built not only just wagers on Esports, but also their own game that mimics a video game. “Everything (Rivalry) does is centered around the Esports community. “They’re built not just in terms of having events, but they also have the language that you might speak if you’re a gamer or an Esports fan,” Abarbanel said. ![]() Rivalry, a dedicated Esports book based in Canada, is one that has stuck out to her. Therefore, if you’re sitting in a sportsbook and ask for an Esports event to be broadcasted, it’s unlikely you’ll understand what’s going on if you aren’t already familiar with the video game.Ībarbanel sees dedicated Esports sportsbooks as the most user-friendly option for betting on video games. The learning curve for casual fans can be steep in certain video games, especially action strategy-based games such as Dota 2 and League of Legends.Įsports broadcasts typically don’t commentate in a way that can explain the action to newcomers or casual fans. There are some elements like player-to-player, but we haven’t particularly innovated.” Online Sportsbooks Have Edge Over Retail With EsportsĪbarbanel sees online sportsbooks as currently being more user-friendly for betting Esports than retail options. In Nevada, we were the first to permit wagering on Esports, but we haven’t really gone too much further past that. “That’s where we are now, where we are kind of slow to the uptake. “Where we seem to have faltered is really in the United States,” Brett Abarbanel, Director of Research of the International Gaming Institute at UNLV, said at the Global Gaming Conference in Las Vegas on Monday. ![]() ![]() online sportsbook to offer wagering on Esports when it took bets on the League of Legends World Championships.īut since then, the Esports betting market hasn’t seen the same growth in the United States as the sport itself. In 2019, FanDuel sportsbook became the first U.S.
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