SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Ahilleas Papantos, Director of Partnerships at Bayes Esports, speaks to SBC News regarding the importance of correctly managing and developing the group’s portfolio of data partnerships across the global esports ecosystem to make further waves in the sector.
SBC News: Complacency doesn’t light a path to success in business. Could you briefly touch upon how Bayes Esports is plotting to continue to swell its presence within the space?
Ahilleas Papantos: Complacency doesn’t bode well in any business – particularly not within the entertainment industry. In 2024, we’ve seen significant changes within the esports tournament landscape, with the retirement of DOTA 2’s DPC ecosystem and subsequent Majors, the exit of certain esport tournament organisers, the introduction of new players, and the expansion of others.
Bayes Esports has made sure to hone in on the most relevant Counter-Strike 2 & Dota 2 content, establishing multiple new key partnerships with leading tournament organisers, to produce our most expansive and refined content calendar in our history.
In parallel, we are expanding our distribution network so that the content we offer reaches more operators, platforms, and media networks around the world as well as widening our product and services stack to make sure we are driving value for our customers along their entire commercial value chain.
SBCN: How do you assess which partnerships would ultimately be the most fruitful for the group?
AP: This year, we are focused on investing in the most profitable esports content – with CS2 and Dota 2 esports driving the highest return on investment for our leading portfolio of clients.
There are multiple factors that determine the ultimate success of licensed content and the tournament organisers that we partner with. This is largely a decision process underpinned by our esports expertise, spanning over multiple years.
The condensed process involves measurements of certain parameters and content traits, including history and the reputation of the tournament organizers, the performance levels of the qualified teams, prize pool, scheduling, and countless other market nuances.
SBCN: With being the leading official live data rights supplier for CS2 and Dota 2 esports data, how can you best plan to strengthen this position?
AP: Bayes Esports already has in place two partnerships with the leading organisers of CS2 and Dota 2 esports tournaments, ESL FACEIT Group and BLAST Premier. We continue to fortify our position within the market with several new partnerships having been executed already in 2024 that we look forward to announcing in the months to come. Watch this space, as they say.
SBCN: From an operator perspective, what needs to happen to ensure that a continued uptick in development, and uptake, is maintained.
AP: The esports industry is dynamic by nature with its components constantly shifting and evolving. Any stakeholders, including operators that don’t set out with building their product portfolio and strategy with a clear dedication in investing in the esports market with experts backing their development, could have problems further down the line.
This is true for any industry, but incredibly so for esports with its constant evolution of metadata, patch updates, online endemic, and savvy audiences that do not miss a thing. Bayes Esports has a team providing round the clock operations managing the live tournament data so our customers catch every moment.
Higher quality betting solutions, enhanced fan engagement, and a deep understanding of betting audiences are some of the key factors that drive better viewership and higher revenue streams.
The basis of these high quality solutions is official live data, which can only occur if the data comes directly from licensed sources, such as tournament organisers and other rights holders. That is why forging these strategic partnerships is so important to Bayes Esports.
