SBC Barcelona: It's high time we invested in esports

Casino Guru News wrapped up our SBC Summit Barcelona tour by attending the panel on "Esports – Investing in the future," which included many prominent industry specialists who have dedicated their careers and business models to building a successful esports ecosystem. More importantly, they have believed in esports at a time when others remained skeptics.

But esports’ appeal is undeniable, and the industry needs to sit up and listen. The panel was moderated by Bill Pascrell, III from Princeton Public Affairs Group, and attended by some of the most notable talent in the industry. Among the speakers were Luckbox CEO ThomasRosander, BETER CEO GalEhrlich, Pinnacle Director of Business Development RohiniSardana, Oddin Managing Director & Co-founder Marek Suchar and GRID co-founder & CSO MikaelWesterling.

The panel sought to answer a number of interesting questions. For starters, the moderator wanted to know what needs to be done to advocate and educate on this content. Education is an important part of esports, the panelists argued, and any educational efforts must be focused on both consumers and regulators.

Westerling argued that more needs to be done for the North American market in order to help consumers understand how esports and gambling meet and what companies such as game providers and publishers can do to approach this better. Sardana noted that there are key differences between esports consumers and the rest the industry has been accustomed to.

"Trying to attract an audience or sell a product to them in a traditional sports-betting way in the same space doesn't work. You need to find where this demographic is and talk to them in their language and you will see the money," Sardana explained. Another matter is for the industry to sit up and listen.

Esports is undergoing rapid adoption but not all brands and operators are following suit. To change that, companies that want to be competitive would need to make sure they change their attitude towards esports. Some markets, though, pose a greater challenge to companies seeking to adopt esports betting, nevertheless. One such is the North American market, and the United States in particular.

The difficulty in the United States stems from the strongly individualistic approach each state takes to regulating esports. Another challenge that lies before the adoption of esports is how to monetize the product better – after all, sports betting has been monetized successfully for years. But then again, operators are really tempted to make sure that they get in on the esports vertical, as it could transform them into local leaders and help create the right opportunities for them, including attracting newer demographic to their business models.

As of right now, the panelists said, most of the education that is done in the industry is driven by self-interest, and this is not bad. Effectively, operators are trying to understand esports so they can leverage and monetize it successfully.

"We are witnessing a massive shift in how we consume entertainment right now, and that is the problem. Nobody or very few in this business are actually understanding what it means and are taking it seriously," Rosander pitched in. He noted that newer generations are now getting together to watch esports with their friends rather than getting together to watch sports.

It's similarly important to understand the esports demographic which consists of technologically savvy individuals who are keen on studying historical data and statistics before making decisions. Many of them actually understand the game and meta organically as they are keen to follow through with events out of pure passion.

Sardana noted that there still lingers some skepticism when it comes to legislation in the United States. In the executive’s personal experience, many lawmakers say that they are reluctant to allow esports betting as they hardly understand it. Of course, the fact that esports appeals to new generations means that there would need to be sterling responsible gambling tools and measures in the space to safeguard players as well.

Esports is definitely the future, the panelists agree, with adoption definitely going to increase. What remains is the hard work – educating regulators and operators, and even some consumers.

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