SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Pinnacle Sports dedicated eSports market is set to offer customers the highest ever limits on TI5 matches at next week’s The International Dota 2 Championships.
The limits will rise to an eye watering $100,000 (£ 64,000) for the Grand Final on August 8th. This is particularly significant in that this is a higher amount than the standard limits Pinnacle offer for both Premier League and NFL betting. This is a clear indication of the rise of eSports, and Pinnacle’s recognition of this rise. The average punter will still of course be catered for with minimum bets at $1 (£0.64).
Another added bonus for the tournament is that the bookmaker will also be offering live-in play betting for the play off stages in a bid to move eSports yet further towards their mainstream markets
Head of Sportsbook at Pinnacle, Marco Blume, said of the announcement: “We don’t see eSports as niche or novelty, we consider it alongside our mainstream sports like soccer or basketball. So given that status that The International, and eSports in general now holds, we wanted to apply appropriate betting limits.
Pinnacle, based in Curacao, surpassed one million eSports bets back in December 2014 and it’s a sport they’ve offered wagering on since 2010. The amount of bets they’ve taken on the sport has doubled each year since, and this growth looks set to continue with The International and beyond.
