Blizzard Chief - Long Road Ahead for eSports: Today's Odds

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25 February, 2018

Blizzard Entertainment scored big with the debut of its Overwatch League. The official esports league for Overwatch players drew more than 10 million viewers in its debut week in January and the online gambling sector has begun to embrace the league, offering odds on it.

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While market researcher Newzoo reported last week that global esports revenues will grow 38 percent to $906 million in 2018 and further grow to $1.65 billion by 2021, Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard, recently suggested that the road ahead for eSports full acceptance could be a long one.

“If you look at the engagement levels people have with games—even if you just look at the top individual games and you compare that to the engagement around traditional sports, you do see that the engagement isn’t that different,” Morhaime told GamesBeat.

But from a sponsorship perspective things will likely take some time.

"All the media companies are trying to figure out how to have a digital business. A part of their business that’s devoted to this segment."

He added: “We had a dynamic where cable subscription dollars were going in and funding a lot of growth. Those dynamics are changing. But we didn’t benefit from any of that cable stuff. We’re in a position to not have this huge peak that we end up being compared to.”

Find all of today's eSports live betting odds here - Sample odds for February 25, 2018 appear below