Esports betting has grown in recent years to become a much bigger part of the industry. With Covid 19 putting a stop to a lot of sports, there has been a boost to esports. Esports betting in 2021 has grown alongside viewership and interest in esports in general. Bookmakers are becoming more involved with the games, directly sponsoring teams. New territories are changing to allow esports betting too. The market for esports gambling in 2021 is getting bigger.
The last year has seen a lot of bookmakers significantly expanding their esports offerings. They’re added more games to their selections. This opens up whole new avenues for esports betting. Fans can place bets on more niche events along with games that have up until now been unrepresented. There’s also been a growth in cryptocurrency used in esports betting, and new markets opening up there.
The esports betting industry is still an early one. However, 2021 has seen a lot of growth in this area. 2022 is looking promising too. This is what’s changed over the year, and what it means for esports betting in 2021.
New Regions and Marketplaces for Esports Betting in 2021
Esports betting in 2021 can thank some of its growth to new markets opening up. New Jersey and some other areas have legalized esports gambling in recent months. This opens the door for more people in a more variety of places to get involved. While the US still doesn’t have as widespread approval as Europe, this is a big move for esports gambling in 2021.
US betting laws are pretty well known for being complex. However, online bookmakers have established some solid ways to give customers a great experience. As more states begin to revise old laws to accommodate esports betting, we can expect these offerings to change. However, even with these changes already there are some great esports betting sites in the US.
Esports Betting Companies Growth and New Opportunities in 2021
While the expansion of betting sites themselves is good news, the companies offering betting have expanded too. Rivalry is one of the bigger esports bookmakers. As you can see in things like a Rivalry review, they are already one of the best gambling sites for esports.
This year, they became publicly listed in October. If you’re looking into esports stocks, this is one of the few publicly tradable bookmakers out there. They also secured a $40 million investment over the course of the year, helping to expand throughout the year.
Unikrn has been acquired by a larger company, merging into Entain. This company already runs major bookmakers like Ladbrokes and bwin, Unikrn joins this spread of bookmakers offering more esports options.
Companies involved with esports betting have even widened their revenue streams. Companies have begun to monetize the data gathered from esports betting in 2021. Pandascore has launched an esports betting hub and made deals with bookmakers to gather more data for these events. This is going to become more of a necessity as sites begin to offer more diverse, and harder to predict games.
Varied esports odds are a common problem for smaller games, so data sharing should help ensure better payouts and rates even on less-widely followed games. More stable odds are a big improvement, especially with different games being added to esports bookmakers over the last year.
Esports Betting 2021 – More Markets and Games
Esports is a pretty wide term. A lot of sites offer esports, but get limited to just the major games to not overwhelm things. However, this year has seen some big expansions to the number of games on offer. These are some of the games that have been added to esports betting sites in 2021;
- KOG
- Valorant
- PUBG
- Halo
- Wild Rift
- Apex legends
Some of these additions are down to the game’s only just getting a bigger esports scene or new release, like Valorant or Halo. However, the addition of more mobile offerings is a good sign of increased interest in mobile esports. Along with games like Apex and PUBG getting more representation, years after their games were released.
Those are just the ones which you can find at most bookmakers. At esports bookmakers that offer more diverse games, there have been even more added this year. As esports grows more popular it is only natural that more betting markets will be added.
Sponsorships and Promotions for Esports Betting in 2021
Sponsorships from betting companies are fairly common in traditional sports, but often not as big for esports. This has changed quite a bit recently, and some major sponsorships have come in 2021. One of the biggest here has to be DraftKings teaming up FaZe Clan. The CSGO team from FaZe will be sporting DraftKings as a sponsor going forward.
Betway has also gone into a partnership with G2 esports. Betway already sponsors quite a few teams, but further expansion for esports is always good. Rivalry was another bookmaker that moves into CSGO. They announced a partnership with 00 Nation for their CSGO team.
Coinbase is one of the crypto names that have moved into esports sponsorships. While this isn’t directly related to betting, it reflects the growing divergence of the two areas. More and more sites are offering better crypto esports betting in 2021.
Growth and Metrics for Esports Betting in 2021
One way to assess how much the esports betting industry is changing is to look directly at how revenue has changed. It is difficult to get full figures for revenue in esports betting for the year. Things are a little early to really look back. However, the addition of a publicly tradable company is going to make things easier to judge going forward.
The market for esports betting has grown quite a lot in recent years. In terms of numbers, things are pretty impressive. Rivalry is just one part of the esports betting industry, but we can take their detailed statistics as a good bellwether for how the industry is growing as a whole.
Their involvement through Q3 saw a 141% increase this year from the year before. This is a natural boost given that live stream watch time for esports in 2021 nearly tripled. This is impressive growth for esports betting in 2021 too. It appears that expanded game offerings and features from sites are responding to a growing audience.
These metrics show some real strength for the esportse betting market in 2021. Sites will continue to add more games over 2022. While no one can predict where things will go next year, most estimates see the esports betting industry continuing to grow over the next year.
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