SBC Barcelona: Leaders on who will succeed in taming the shrewd esports segment

Esports has had a transformative impact on how we perceive the gambling industry and entertainment as a whole. The SBC Summit Barcelona on Wednesday shed even more light into this challenging segment that has been tamed by the likes of GRID and SIS. Casino Guru News’ team sought to understand the vertical better by attending the "Esports – bringing customers back to the future" which focused on explaining how the segment experienced a tremendous shift in public perception and why operators should take esports more seriously in the first place.

There are a lot of untapped potential in this vertical still and moving quickly is important. But even more importantly, operators need to onboard consumers and show them why betting on esports can be fun and something they want to do in the first place.The panel reunited GRID CSO & Co-founder Mikael Westerling, SIS Commercial Director Paul Witten, STS Head of Operations Łukasz Świerk, and Monkens League CEO Martin Repetto. The meet-up was moderated by Ficom Leisure – Gaming Advisory Senior Manager Christian Tirabassi.

The participants examined how esports changed during the pandemic and how "barriers" were torn down. A huge interest in esports content occurred during the heyday of the pandemic with sports lacking events to cover. Some of the most successful operators began featuring esports events to make up for the lack of sports, but others were genuinely interested.

Still, esports also faced certain challenges. Many LAN tournaments were also canceled at the beginning. However, it was in this restrictive environment and throughout this testy period, that esports shined anew and demonstrated their staying power and value to operators. During the pandemic, betting on esports increased five-fold, the panelists noted.

Games such as Dota 2 and League of Legends were admittedly far different than anything that people have seen before, but they were nevertheless appealing to even football and basketball fans. Admittedly, though, many sports bettors tried to stick with games and betting markets they understood.

Soccer fans switched to betting on FIFA, the panelists said, as it felt familiar because of the crossover between virtual and real sport. This consumer trend is not always factored in when operators talk about esports betting in the first place. There are other benefits that the esports vertical still holds and that operators can freely tap into as well, and that has to do with the way data is collected.

Data in esports is far easier to come by and is usually openly available. Esports also has the trappings of evolving and becoming a more complex phenomenon. Audiences are young and they have a very deep understanding of the so-called "meta," referring to the optimal way to play a given game, and this is going to push the depth of the experience, the panelists noted.

This will undoubtedly lead to a new generation of esports players, but with it – a new generation of people who enjoy placing bets on esports as well. With this in mind, there are still questions that need to be addressed when speaking about the industry. For example, the panelists question whether consumers will be placing their esports bets with traditional bookmakers or looking for a new experience.

The market seems to be presently dominated by five companies, but will this be the case in several years’ time? Meanwhile, despite all the differences in audiences and other vertical characteristics, esports and sports seem to share and have a lot in common when it comes to the betting experience, especially insofar as the types of wagers you may place go.

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