SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The eSports sector is a “generational movement” that can provide scalability that the gaming industry will relish, according to experts who will focus on the topic at EiG in Berlin, Germany.
Unikrn CEO Rahul Sood and Marco Blume, Head of Sportsbook at Pinnacle Sports, will lead an industry discussion on ‘eSports and gambling – exploring the potential at the intersection of both’ on Day Two of EiG, which will run from October 20-22 at Arena Berlin.
The industry discussion will follow an ‘Outside-In’ session from ESL Chairman Jens Hilgers on ‘eSports – what competitive gaming can tell us about the future of player engagement’.
“The big difference between eSports and traditional sport events is that eSports scale almost indefinitely,” Blume said
“In the future you will most likely be able to watch high quality, competitive matches close to 365 days a year. The barrier to entry in eSports in our society is also very low, with the internet being a common commodity and a variety of devices allowing people to play
“I believe what we are seeing right now in eSports is just the beginning. The eSports generation is just growing up, but it is clear that the demand is huge.”
Blume believes that the next step for the gaming industry will be to roll out live eSports on a large scale.
“Pinnacle has several traders specialising on offering live eSports events,” he said. “The gaming industry today is all about betting live and mobile.”
Earlier this year, Unikrn teamed up with gaming and wagering group Tabcorp, and Sood added that the gaming industry cannot afford to ignore the opportunities provided by eSports.
“We’ll likely see a large crossover between those who bet on traditional sports to those who bet and engage on eSports,” Sood said.
“Based on what I’m seeing, the iGaming industry audience is getting older, whereas eSports is a generational movement that’s happening underneath everyone. It is amazing that there are so many fans of eSports yet most people still do not know what it is yet.
“Both Unikrn and Tabcorp are very complementary for this and many more reasons. They push us to think about responsible gaming and safe and legal betting, and we push them to innovate in new markets in this really cool space.”
