Organized competitive video gaming, or eSports, is one of the fastest growing types of entertainment and competition in the world. Starting with local area network video game competitions mostly between friends in the late 1990s, eSports has grown into an international cultural phenomenon, with many different video games (such as League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, and FIFA) serving as an avenue of competition for players and teams from many countries across the globe.
That’s why the number of people set to experience ICE London 2020 is set to grow exponentially following Clarion Gaming’s decision to co-host a 250,000 dollars prize money professional eSports tournament that will be live broadcast to an online global audience in excess of 5 million. The initiative, which is being undertaken in partnership with GG.Bet, will comprise an 800 square meter Esports Arena featuring a custom built stage, an educational auditorium, commentator ICE box, partner data.bet lounge, a themed bar and a betting hatch allowing players to “bet” ICE and GG.Bet dollars in order to simulate eSports wagering.
Described by Clarion’s recently appointed Head of eSports, William Harding, as representing a “global industry first”, ICE London’s Esports Arena will provide visitors with the practical tool kit and strategic insights to take full commercial advantage of what is one of the industry’s fastest growing wagering sectors. The live event, which will be streamed to eSports fans worldwide, is only open to over 18-year-old, B2B delegates.
“Clarion Gaming’s mandate is to provide platforms to inform the entire industry and I believe the addition of the Esports Arena fits into that model perfectly. ICE London has a phenomenal reputation and is at the forefront of innovation not just across gaming but in the entire events industry and this new feature will truly allow visitors to ‘Dive into the future’. The Esports Arena will be the one-stop shop to learn and experience everything about eSports and introduce a whole new world of bettors. Insight expert presentations will explain how to attract an audience that has perhaps previously been difficult to engage with. There will also be ‘how-to’ guides focussing on generating revenue and maximising ROI,” explained Harding.
“We want to give an authentic eSports experience in ways which have never been seen before. We will have eight of the best Counter Strike teams in the world competing, playing real time games which will be streamed to real fans around the world, all of which will be live on the ICE London showfloor. For land-based operators interested in how to produce a tournament, we will be effectively building an authentic eSport show live in front of them. Highlighting the level of production necessary to deliver a tournament on this scale, the arena will allow delegates to go behind the scenes with our production team as well as providing player interviews throughout the competition, showcase broadcast editing insights and deliver tournament structure and data/performance analysis. The educational auditorium will feature a full schedule of presentations on topics such as how to use esport data to create odds, esport recruiting and esport wagering,” Harding added.
“With market reports showing registered eSports wagering of 5.6 billions dollars in 2015 has grown to $13 billion this year, it’s going to be one of the must attend features at ICE London for operators and gaming brands alike. Through this unique event experience, we aim to provide the industry with a one-stop education space and deliver something far beyond anything else that’s been done before in terms of esports education for the gaming sector,” said the Head of eSports at Clarion Gaming.
The top tier global eSports team Natus Vincere (NAVI) have been confirmed as one of the eight eSports teams competing for the prize. ICE London’s Esports Arena tournament is set to break attendance records at the 2020 exhibition.
Commenting on the signing of NAVI to the tournament and the new feature’s estimated impact on ICE London’s audience, Harding explained: «With our eSports tournament being broadcast live to an online global audience in excess of 5 million, we are expecting to see the number of people experiencing ICE London 2020 to grow heavily. They have an unprecedented connection to their fans, with over 7.5 million followers across all social media channels and having won over 10 million USD in several eSports games, they are considered as one of the favourites for the ICE Esports Arena competition. With this launch comes many sponsorship opportunities available for gaming companies to really get their stamp on this exciting ICE 2020 launch, including bar happy hours, auditorium co-sponsorship and sponsored speaking slots.”
How big can the market be?
Betting on eSports is a big thing right now. This (relatively) new type of betting got off to a slow start, but it has gained a lot of traction over the last couple of years. The growth has been so explosive that it’s been estimated that the global eSports betting market will be worth nearly 30 billion dollars by 2020.
That’s a massive figure, especially when its consider that eSports are still “under the radar” to some extent. The eSports fanbase is huge these days, but it’s nowhere near as big as the fanbases for traditional sports such as soccer, football and tennis. Most people outside of those types of fanbases don’t have any idea what eSports are all about.
As one of the fastest growing categories in online gambling, eSports betting is on pace to reach up to 8 billion in total wagers, equating to 560 million in revenue at an industry average margin of 7 percent. Growth estimates point to more than 16 billion in annual wagers in coming years.
There is huge potential for synergy and collaboration between the eSports and gaming, and gambling industries. Gaming already has the attention of Millennials and Generation Z. Betting operators have moved online with traditional gambling to attract these generations. Now eSports is a new route for gambling companies to connect with younger consumers and avid gamers, and not just online either.
Globally, more and more online gambling web sites are adding eSports betting sections. As per Casino.org and betting consultant NJGames.org there was 5.5 billion gambled on eSports in 2016 but this figure is expected to reach 12.9 billion dollars in 2020.
NJGames names eSports wagers the fastest growing betting trend in sports gambling. The sports betting market is currently valued at 250 billion and around 40 billion in sports betting takes place online. The amounts wagered worldwide on eSports betting are steadily growing, starting from 315 million dollars back in 2015 to 7 billion in 2018, wich is estimated to double by 2020. The base projection for the amount of customers placing eSports wagers in 2020 is 6.5 million.
When its comes to the games themselves, the most popular eSports game on the gambling market was League of Legends (LoL), as approximately 38 percent of the total eSportsbook amount wagered was attributed to bets placed on LoL. This is followed by Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), with 29 percent of the betting volume.
Biggest prize pool in the world
All around the world, eSports are on the rise and they don’t look to be slowing down any time soon. Players have seen some big payouts over the last five years. While the overall size of a prize pool doesn’t determine the prestige of an event, it’s one of the major factors players use to determine whether they’ll show up.
The first eSports prize was given away in 1997 when Dennis “Thresh” Fong won Quake developer John Carmac’s red Ferrari 328. In 2006, Johan “Toxjq” Quick won a Rolex from the WSVG Quake 4 championship. Those were certainly remarkable in their time. But today’s prize pools are large enough that players can often retire upon winning them.
As the popularity of games such as CS:GO and Dota 2 grew, more money poured into the industry, which created more opportunities for betting and gambling to rise. This is unsurprising considering the amount of money on the line in the top eSports tournaments.
The prize pool for the League of Legends 2017 Season World Championship was 4,5 million. For the 2018 Call of Duty World League Championships, the prize was 1.5 million. The International, Valve’s annual world championship in Dota 2, has broken the record for eSports prize pools for nine years in a row. While offering a total of 1.6 million dollars in 2011 and 2012, since 2013, the event has been the most successful example of crowdfunded prize pools in eSports history. On the most recent iteration of the event, The International 2019, teams all over the world fought for a slice of an over 33 million dollars prize pool.
Concerns of corruption
Esports gambling is not without constraints and concerns. As with traditional sports, preventing match-fixing is a priority to maintain credibility for the industry. As the rapidly growing phenomenon surrounding eSports continues to gather steam, the intersection of gaming and sports offers an innovative wave of branding opportunities, engaging content and activations for millions across the world.
In this context, one of the most significant challenges will be legislation. Since it is an emerging industry, many jurisdictions lack clear rules to regulate the eSports gambling sector, especially in the case of player age verification and skin gambling.
There are a number of other roadblocks. Gambling operators need to understand how to garner the interest of younger generations whilst also being careful. Many eSports players and their fans are under the age of 21. In New Jersey, US bets cannot be taken on a team with a player under 18.
Operators need to be approaching regulators for permissions but to do so they have to be confident in the opportunity of eSports gambling and how to make the most of it. Overall the gambling industry may need clear regulatory parameters to take advantage of the potential in eSports betting.
Today, confronted with anti-corruption measures within traditional sports, organized crime are aggressively expanding into new markets, hoping to stay one step ahead of enforcement. The rise in eSports betting brings with it the unwelcome, and often unwitting, participation in activities such as match fixing and point-shaving, which endanger legitimate wagering, the players and teams, and esports as a whole.
Concerns of corruption are more than mere speculation. There were 39 significant alerts into potential match-fixing in 2017, as fears grow that esports is vulnerable. Esports has already suffered match-fixing scandals, concentrated in South Korea and China, resulting in bans, fines, and arrests.
Corruption risks are particularly pronounced in esports since cohesive regulations, governing body, structure, or standards across the entire competitive ecosystem do not currently exist. Perhaps no game, or more accurately collection of games, is harder to regulate than eSports.
Unlike traditional sports, which have fairly well established “rules of the road,” eSports is widely fragmented, with each game Publisher controlling its own game or games. Thus, a publisher of one game often has no insight into activities of players in a game published and controlled by another company.
