Will e-sports be an industry savior during the Covid-19 pandemic?
According to the data published in the online gambling guide, the page traffic of its platform on e-sports gambling skills surged by 943%. Among them, the part about “Dead or Alive 2” betting skills, grew 245% between February and March. This also means that during the isolation period in many countries around the world, more and more bettors began to try to learn the knowledge and skills about e-sports betting. Quentin Martin, CEO of e-sports gambling site Luckbox, said that although the e-sports schedule is also affected, but it is more flexible in the current situation because the players can play through the internet without having to gather in the same space.
Quentin Martin added that although fans will create a good atmosphere at the game site. But this is not much different from thousands of fans watching through live broadcasts. As he said, some previously announced games that were postponed were transferred to be held through the internet, such as Counter-Strike, Dota 2 and League of Legends. Due to the prevalence of e-sports and the convenience provided to players, spectators and bettors during the virus outbreak, gambling companies are promoting more virtual games online to maintain business development. In fact, e-sports gambling and e-sports have grown steadily. According to investor estimates, the size of the e-sports gambling industry will reach USD17.2 billion by the end of 2020.
Due to the surge in e-sports gambling activities, more gambling companies are trying to further explore the online gaming category. Therefore, the convenience and profitability provided by the current e-sports gambling have made more investors interested in this field. If e-sports continues to be popular with players of traditional sports gambling, there may be more intersections between traditional sports gambling and e-sports gambling, such as the highly acclaimed eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series. An industry source pointed out that the mainstream media is making e-sports headlines because this is the only sport currently. In the past, market participants who were not interested in e-sports gambling marketing expressed their willingness to join.
In the case of the suspension of almost mainstream traditional sports events, more players began to pay attention to new markets with huge potential for e-sports, which undoubtedly also promoted the progress of the entire industry. Although it is too early to say whether e-sports gambling can replace traditional sports gambling in the future, it is undoubted that the potential released by e-sports gambling during the pandemic period is obvious to all.
