Round Table: The Rise of eSports

ALI ATAM: We have been offering betting across eSports for over a year now and have observed strong interest from the customer and growth trends in terms of turnover, stake sizing and customer numbers. Whilst the sport is still maturing, so does our fixed-odds offer in terms of coverage and markets offered pre-event and in-play. Today eSports accounts for a small comparative share of our overall turnover (dominated by the traditional sports of football, tennis, basketball and ice hockey) but we have observed turnover volumes increase month-by-month consistently and at exponential levels.

JAMES HAMPLETON: Unfortunately we don’t share numbers like the ones you’re requesting, but we’re very proud to be a destination for eSports betting. We’re the only established bitcoin book providing lines on eSports.

ADAM GASKELL: eSports has become our fastest growing market judged by volume and player numbers. Overall, it was our seventh biggest sport in terms of volume in 2014. The level of volume traded has pretty much doubled every year since we began dealing in 2010, and based on current activity this looks set to continue. We took our one millionth bet in December 2014, and expect to get to two million much, much faster.

ARE THERE SPECIFIC ESPORTS WHICH ARE PROVING PARTICULARLY POPULAR AMONG BETTORS, AND IF SO, WHAT ARE THESE?

ALI ATAM: Certainly Counter Strike, Dota 2 and League of Legends collectively form the ‘Big 3’ for us when it comes to interest at a competition level across eSports.

JAMES HAMPLETON: We provide lines on League of Legends, Dota 2, StarCraft 2, Counter Strike, and Hearthstone. We’ve had lines on other eSports as well, but these are by far the most popular. We tend to see the most volume on StarCraft 2 and Dota 2, but the League of Legends community seems to be growing every day! Counter Strike is a relatively new addition for us, but it was an instant hit!

ADAM GASKELL: In order of current popularity of betting at Pinnacle: StarCraft 2; Dota 2; Counter Strike Global Offensive; League of Legends and Hearthstone. However, this doesn’t reflect their overall popularity in terms of pure global participation where League of Legends dominates followed by Dota, CS:GO then StarCraft 2, which is somewhat in decline.

HAVE AFFILIATES BEGUN TO EMBRACE THE OPPORTUNITIES PRESENTED BY ESPORTS, OR IS THE MARKET STILL RELATIVELY UNTAPPED FROM AN AFFILIATE PERSPECTIVE?

ALI ATAM: I’d just add that traders have observed sportsbooks sponsoring some of the bigger eSports tournaments and also using ‘Twitch’ (gaming content) as a site for acquisition and marketing.

JAMES HAMPLETON: The affiliate market for eSports is still very much untapped. We tend to work with two types of affiliates in this market - sports betting focused affiliates who don’t know all that much about the eSports market, or eSports enthusiasts who are just learning about the betting opportunities. There are only a few sites that we’ve worked with who have managed to bridge the gap in an effective way. Last year’s The International (Dota 2) had a prize pool of over $10 million and had over 20 million unique viewers. And yet unlike major sports, eSports is not covered by the media giants in the betting industry. eSports is becoming mainstream, but many traditional betting affiliates are struggling to catch up. We see this industry as pure potential, especially for smaller niche sites. One of our biggest affiliates in terms of traffic is actually an eSports-specific review site. They own their niche, and dominate the search engine rankings for their keywords. Affiliates who are willing to embrace this opportunity are well ahead of the game and have a dedicated set of users.

ADAM GASKELL: We have seen significant growth in both the number of eSports affiliates as well as the contribution they are making to our acquisition numbers. However, given the size of the global eSports market and its projected growth, this really is very early days. More affiliates are starting to contact us regarding the opportunity to promote eSports, which is really exciting, and although the percentage of our current eSports affiliates is currently low, the affiliates we do have show promising signs for the future. One eSports affiliate in particular is now in our top bracket of overall affiliates in terms of new acquisitions and revenue. We have also set up competitions with our eSports affiliates to incentivise them. Our design team have created bespoke creative - for both website and social channels - making specific efforts to ensure the tone and style are suitable for the eSports audience.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE AFFILIATES LOOKING TO ENTER THE ESPORTS MARKET?

Ali Atam: What we would suggest is looking at creative affiliate marketing – this could be sponsorship of players or teams. You also need to understand your audience – this is not the typical sports bettor of the last 10 years but a young dynamic that likely spent more time playing computer games rather than on the sports fields! It’s a very new generation – these kids are growing up as eSports fans!

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