Casino Industry Embrace of eSports and Which Events Attact the Most Wagering
It's no secret that quite a few online sportsbooks feature sections on their websites dedicated to daily eSports betting and marquee futures betting. Here at Gambling911.com we have seen the type of traffic that comes in when covering these events.
eSports wagering is in some type of weird purgatory as far as the North American market is concerned. Very few of the U.S. states that have legalized sports betting allow bets on eSports competitions. This is not necessarily the case in Europe and the UK. For example, when you compare online casinos at Casino Sites UK, listed sportsbooks there like bwin and William Hill fully embrace competitive gaming by offering daily wagers on tournaments.
Interesting enough, the U.S. casino industry seems to be getting ahead of their mobile sports betting counterparts.
HyperX Arena Las Vegas bills itself as the ultimate destination for daily video game play, high-stakes competitive esports events and tournaments, and gaming-related experiences. It can be found smack dab inside the Luxor Casino.
One individual posted on Google:
"I was pleasantly shocked that such a place existed inside a casino. It’s literally one of those things you won’t believe until you see it. The layout was more geared towards pc gamers if my memory serves me correct. Wasn’t as busy as you might think but maybe I got off lucky. I should of asked if you are allowed to bring your own games/controller to play because that would really top off the experience."
The facility features a 30,000 square-foot 2-level arena with three VIP rooms, a 1,400 square-foot stage, 70-seat Telescopic Stadium Seating and 50-foot LED wall. And, yes, the state of Nevada is only one of two that allow for eSports gambling, the other being New Jersey.
And speaking of New Jersey, the 2023 Casino Esport Conference (CEC) will be taking place in the seaside casino city of Atlantic City, New Jersey. It is a two-day hands-on connecting the esports and video gaming industries to the casino, cinema, and collegiate worlds.
With well over 160 million gamers, the USA is the second-largest gaming market in the world. Revenue in the Esports Betting market is projected to reach US$0.82bn in 2023. The global eSports Betting market size was valued at USD 671.78 million in 2022 and that number is expected to keep growing.
We would note that China is the biggest eSports market, but placing bets on anything there is not always an easy task. South Korea, Denmark and Russia complete the list of the top 5. Canada cracks the top 10, the United Kingdom does not.
So what are some of the most wagered on eSports events in any given year? Let's take a look.
League of Legends World Championship
Some 36,000,000 people watched online with another 43,000 attended live in 2015. The event took place throughout the month of October and it featured 16 teams competing for their piece of a $2 million prize pool. This is considered the 5th most watched eSports tournament ever. The 2023 event runs from October 10 through November 19.
LoL Mid-Season Invitational
The 2018 installment of this competition holds the record for the largest viewership at 60,000,000.
The Mid-Season Invitational is an annual League of Legends international tournament hosted by Riot Games in the middle of years, since 2015. It is the second most important international League of Legends tournament aside from the World Championship.
The 2023 installment took place in May.
The International
The International 2023 concluded the year-long Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) back in May. This was the twelfth run of the tournament.
IESF 15th World Esports Championships
We still have another big eSports tournament upcoming in December. 1,200 players will represent over 130 nations in the event.
Counter-Strike Global Offensive (CS:GO)
Counter-Strike Global Offensive (CS:GO) features tournaments just about every week to wager on. The ESL Pro League and the Majors, CSGO are two of the bigger events associated with CS:GO.
On September 26, the CSGO Twitch listing was removed and replaced, as Valve teases the imminent Counter-Strike 2 launch, and the likely end of the CS2 beta.
Valorant and Call of Duty
Valorant was launched in 2020 but is already among the most bet on titles. It is described as a tactical 5v5 first-person shooter game. There are tournaments beginning to offer prizes of $100,000 and up.
Call of Duty is a household title with more than $6 million up for grabs each season.
- Alistair Prescott, Gambling911.com
