As esports continues its meteoric rise, the betting landscape evolves just as quickly. To understand what is in store for the year ahead, SBC News sat down with Abios’ Managing Director Anton Janér, Sales Director Niclas Sundell and Engineering Manager Peter Torsson to explore the product developments that could reshape esports wagering in 2025.
From the creative possibilities of bet builders to the surging interest in always-on content and Brazil’s betting market opening, the Abios team offers an exclusive look at the trends and innovations that will keep operators ahead of the curve.
Growth strategies tailored for esports
Esports is very different to sports, both in terms of viewership culture and audience. To grow the esports betting vertical, Sundell states it’s essential for operators to create experiences that resonate with the audience. He tells SBC News: “Operators need to build an user acquisition strategy behind their esports products to generate strong returns.”
Paramount to this strategy is staying on top of upcoming tournaments and trends, as well as delivering engaging features that adds value to the viewership experience.
“Fans watch esports matches online on broadcasts where they can interact with each other through chats or get commentary from their favourite streamers,” Sundell adds. “For sportsbooks to attract fans and enable them to stay on their platforms for longer, offering in-play statistics and other value-adding engagement features is key.”
Bridging the gap in esports betting product maturity
Janér, meanwhile, shared his thoughts on the product-side. “We’ve seen significant progress recently,” he says. “While no operator has reached the top-tier product level you would see for football, we’re getting very close. Not only in terms of engagement features such as streams or statistics, but with pricing and markets. Our bet builder and player props in Counter-Strike are major steps towards closing the feature gap”.
Abios’ Managing Director adds: “You see more operators both in and outside the Kambi group investing significantly into esports betting. If you’re making that investment in the correct way, you’re seeing a lot of return on it as well.”
Abios’ plans for 2025
Looking ahead to 2025, Abios plans to expand its always-on titles, offering more content and engaging markets. Torsson explains: “With a bet builder, access to content for over 20,000 monthly events, and automated odds setting, we can maintain high uptime and build out a library of the most engaging markets for our always-on product portfolio.”
For esports titles such as Counter-Strike 2, LoL, Dota 2 and VALORANT, Abios has secured deals with esports data tournament rights holders, enabling operators to obtain “the fastest markets” for esports from one provider.
“With access to real-time data, we can ensure optimised uptime on our live markets, essential for staying competitive with the very best,” Torsson adds.
“For 2025, we will bring our bet builder and most engaging market types to titles such as LoL, Dota 2, and VALORANT, bringing new experiences to the market. Our live offering is going to see new features barely scratched upon in sports betting, but more on that later.”
Always-on titles and esports titles – What’s the difference?
The interest in always-on content has boomed in recent years. The distinction between always-on titles and esports is crucial. Always-on content, like fast-paced tournaments in FC25 and NBA2K, mimics real-world sports and targets a similar audience. These are called “esoccer” and “ebasketball”.
In contrast, esports titles like League of Legends and Dota 2 are computer games first, with a unique culture and fanbase. “Always-on content is more akin to traditional sports titles, while esports have evolved from the grassroots,” Torsson explains.
For esports, such as League of Legends, Counter-Strike 2 and VALORANT, the production quality for top-tier tournaments closes in on the very best in traditional sports. With ever-growing viewership figures and gaming reaching mainstream audiences through initiatives such as Netflix top-show “Arcane”, esports is carving out its own niche in popular culture.
Debunking myths: sports bettor vs. esports bettor
A common misconception is that sports bettors are older than esports bettors. However, the average age for both is quite similar, with the average bettor approximately aged in their early 30s. Janér explains: “Esports bettors skew younger, but the peak of the bell curve lies roughly within the same age cohort.”
“In terms of audience crossover, there’s a significant overlap between traditional sports and sports emulator audiences,” Janér notes. “Esports, however, is many times an entirely different audience. While there’s a certain crossover between esports and sports fans, many esports fans solely watch esports, acting as an opportunity for sportsbooks to broaden their addressable markets to a new group altogether.”
AI, crypto and other emerging technologies in betting
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are becoming integral to esports betting. “We’re just scratching the surface,” Torsson says. “AI and ML can be used in everything from understanding end users to pricing markets. It’s about handling risk and ensuring safety protocols are in place”.
The future of crypto and digital assets in betting is uncertain but promising, according to the Abios team. “As long as KYC and AML processes are properly handled, there’s nothing fundamentally problematic, although we are not quite there yet,” Torsson notes.
Brazil is a market to watch
Finally, Sundell expressed excitement about the Brazilian market, which finally launched a regulated framework for sports betting and online casino games at the start of the year.
“Brazil is a soccer nation with a big heritage in esports, especially Counter-Strike. It’s going to be exciting to see how the market develops in the coming months and years”.