SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Esports is recognising the critical role that data plays, with Bayes Esports looking to optimise this to ensure a consistently heightened level of performance is witnessed through 2024 and beyond.
This was highlighted by CEO & Managing Director Martin Dachselt as one of a number of potential developments that will hit the ecosystem through the next 12 months.
In addition to elaborating on how the space can best navigate its unpredictability, Dachselt also has a series of hints for those looking to add esports to a portfolio and elaborates on how advanced tech could be a game changer.
SBC News: It is not unreasonable to state that betting on esports is still very much lagging behind that of traditional sports, why do you believe that this is so?
Martin Dachselt: Esports is lagging behind the top traditional sports like football and tennis, but for many of our customers, esports is still very high in terms of profitability and popularity.
However, a key differentiator is how traditional sports have a larger audience. Almost everyone understands how a football match works, even if they don’t play the game themselves.
Esports on the other hand, is generally only bet on by the players of the games, as they are the ones that understand the dynamic and complex nature of the markets.
The demographic for esports is also much younger than traditional sports bettors. As the esports industry matures, so will its audience, and both industries will be more closely aligned.
SBCN: What are the major obstacles that would need to be overcome for esports betting to close the gap between itself and its more traditional counterpart?
MD: The first obstacle to overcome is the regulations surrounding esports. There are still many regions where esports betting isn’t even allowed. For example, Germany still doesn’t recognise esports as a sport to bet on. It is impossible to match the popularity of traditional sports, if these components are not first changed.
Esports is also less predictable as it lacks standardisation. The formats for matches and tournaments vary greatly; FIFA looks significantly different to CS2, and the setup of tournaments can change at the last minute.
This makes it challenging to not only follow your favourite esports team, but for operators to set up engaging betting solutions for a broad audience. Games also face regular updates in the form of patches, changes to the metadata, or entirely new game titles.
As the industry matures, we will hopefully find a more stable system for operations, and a way to navigate its unpredictableness.
However, it is also the integrity of the esports industry that still remains to be a barrier. To overcome this, we must focus on building a framework that sets the standard for ethical conduct, data handling, and age related considerations.
We must continue to educate the industry on the importance of these standards and only then will we see this gap start to close.
SBCN: What would be the major tips/pointers that you would offer to a company that is looking to add esports betting to its portfolio?
MD: Setting up an esports betting portfolio can be challenging due to the dynamic and complex nature of the industry. When getting started, the following factors should be considered:
- Understand your market: The demographic of your audience will directly impact what game titles an operator should select to ensure they resonate with the local audience. While CS2 may be the most popular game in one region, a more niche smaller game may be more popular in your region. Geography will also impact the types of betting solutions you offer. For example, the Asian market prefers 50-50 balanced odds, leading to prevalence of handicap markets. Your market will affect the odds you provide, and the nature of the markets offered.
- Choose your partners carefully: Understand the quality of the products your partners bring to the table. Take a look at the content they provide, from game titles, to tournaments. How do their operations run? When do they start to offer pre match bets for a major tournament? What is their uptime during a match and how is this balanced for risk free margins? Look into the team behind the betting solutions. Are they experts in both esports and data science, a rare combo to find. Would you have multiple options of odds providers to pick and choose from, something we offer in Bayes Live Odds. And lastly, understand the type of data your partners are working with; scrapped, official data, etc. Your partners are crucial for long term commercial success.
SBCN: A number of threats to the popularity of esports betting have been outlined across the last few years, which of these would you say are the most alarming and how are they overcome?
MD: It is like many industries to ebb and flow through challenging times, as we are seeing with the current esports winter. After consistently seeing year on year growth, the esports boom slowed down and some operators couldn’t keep up with monetisation.
Traditional sports, like formula 1, are doing a great job in drawing in an audience and monetizing their content through sponsorships and partnerships. As the esports industry is in consolidation, tournaments, esports teams, and even betting operators should be open minded to profitable opportunities that help grow the popularity of esports.
SBCN: Advanced tech is widely hailed as a game changer across many industries on a global scale. How can this be correctly utilised to drive esports betting further still?
MD: There are many different game titles, tournaments, and leagues, and with each one, betting operators must also decide where they want to get their odds from. This potentially means multiple integrations, new APIs, different ways of monitoring, or different market definitions.
This challenge often leaves betting operators with two choices. A) to cover only the biggest game titles and tournaments, missing out on a significant amount of revenue. Or B) betting operators will choose not to add esports products to their portfolio at all due to the lack of industry knowledge and tech skills required.
But with Bayes Esports’ advanced technology and services, we help overcome these roadblocks by offering a wide range of games and tournaments, big or small, with just one integration.
We support our partners in building up their esports betting portfolio with the flexibility they want, without the hassle or stress. Operators will have access to official live data and then can choose to use our predictions for a big game title, or access our live odds for smaller, more niche games.
One integration can provide a full, round solution. If game formats change, like we saw in CS:GO to CS2, or operators want to change their odds provider, Bayes Esports can handle these requests in the back end.
As technology advances, we will continue providing products for the entire customer journey. By making esports more accessible and reliable, more betting operators will grow their esports betting portfolio, which in turn will have a significant effect on the entire esports industry.
SBCN: What are the key developments that we can expect to witness from across the esports ecosystem through 2024?
MD: We are seeing a demand in the industry for more marketplaces and services catered to the esports sector. Betting operators are looking for more comprehensive solutions, whether that’s coverage of more tournaments, new games, or products and services covering the entire commercial value chain.
The esports industry is recognising the integral role official data plays and we want to optimise it the most efficient way possible. That is why we want to continue to take our easy one integration approach and expand on it.
We are understanding our customers requirements and tailoring our offerings to meet those needs. I expect to see the esports industry turn its attention to offerings that can provide long-term sustainable growth.
