Esports Betting

news article headlining esports betting will hit 23.5b in revenue by 2020 (for comparison sports betting is currently at ~30b)

http://www.geekwire.com/2015/esports-...nerating-revenues-of-1-81b-worldwide/

this is all based off of a 1k$ research report where the author of that report summarizes it here:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/esport...eal-bigger-than-you-think-chris-grove

I'm assuming that our demograph (ex-gamers, esports viewers, gamblers) are one of the main groups expecting to carry this guys projections. Although not completely since we're mostly ex RTS gamers / fans and it's probably the moba genre that's expected to bring in all this future action.

how much have u bet in the last year? if nothing, would you have if there was an easier way to do it?

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I've bet a few thousand with friends and would have bet on mainstream sports sites if it was easier to do. So far pinnacle is the only site I found with decent lines (every other site I checked had similar lines to pinnacle but with more vig). SC2 action is capped at like 500$ / bet but I think dota 2 etc gets quite high, like maybe 5k? unconfirmed though.

the international is a really fun event, i don't play or follow dota 2 other than that but would have bet a lot more on esports this year except I was busy gambling live poker while it was on

DFS esports version seems to be becoming a thing as well, anyone tried that?

Im guessing the main problem with that is that esports aren't as well regulated as "normal " sports so bookies won't be able to give decent lines in the near future.
SC 2 scandal proves it

For example - League Of Legends Worlds are currently being played,- its up to the final now, yet pinnacle doesn't provide any betting on it even though they do during the season ( neither does bet365 for that matter ) .
I have to say that LoL is probably the most well regulated esports in the world right now. Riot is the company that managed to push esports into the mainstream worldwide. Obviously korean models had much to learn from in order to do it, but now everyone s following Riot's lead. Everything is done with such professionalism that is not to be expected by the normal guy who isn't interested in virtual games.

Surely it will grow, but so much in 5 years? Doubtful
To be honest though, a bookie that specializes in virtual sports only is probably a super good investment right now




edit offtopic: its quite amazing how LoL's fan base is about 5x time bigger than Dota2 althought Dota2 has 5 times the bigger prize pools

I really love gambling and i currently wouldn't bet on any e-sports, simply because i don't follow any closely enough. I don't even know the top 5 of current SC2 players right now. And i would probably the perfect demographic for this kind of things (video game addict that loves gambling with a degen side with too much money on his hands...)

I would've loved eSports betting back when SC1 was big.

I don't watch eSports anymore, so I don't give a shit about eSports betting.

I've placed a few SC2 bets for GSL on Bovada...

I could def see a world 10 years in the future where Esports betting & Esports DFS is a huge market

I saw league of legends fantasy esports on draftkings the other day. Seemed interesting.

re: Matchfixing

I think the biggest problem here is incentives

in SC2 the 2nd tier progamers make shit money, let's say <50k a year which is probably being generous

their prospects are also not very good, if they somehow rise up and rape everyone and win a tourney they get 40k maximum with most tourneys being much less

If you can throw a few matches a year and stack up 100k+, can you really blame the players for being tempted?

but in dota 2 and LOL there is tournaments w/ prize pools of 1m$+, not to mention streaming revenue, sponsorships, and endorsements - so these games are much more protected from match fixing

they are definitely still there though, there isnt a sport on the planet that is totally protected from match fixing, its quite sick actually: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Match_fixing

On October 27 2015 08:55 Smuft wrote: re: Matchfixing I think the biggest problem here is incentives in SC2 the 2nd tier progamers make shit money, let's say <50k a year which is probably being generous their prospects are also not very good, if they somehow rise up and rape everyone and win a tourney they get 40k maximum with most tourneys being much less If you can throw a few matches a year and stack up 100k+, can you really blame the players for being tempted? but in dota 2 and LOL there is tournaments w/ prize pools of 1m$+, not to mention streaming revenue, sponsorships, and endorsements - so these games are much more protected from match fixing they are definitely still there though, there isnt a sport on the planet that is totally protected from match fixing, its quite sick actually: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Match_fixing

yea huge problem.


i do a ton of CS:GO betting. i cant access real money betting sites so i bet using the ingame items (CS:GO has the biggest virtual item marketplace now, tons of betting/trading). makes it for incredibly juicy odds since any kid can bet with skins on csgolounge.com. can only cash stuff out @ 80% of its value tho :/


in terms of throwing there have been plenty of cases in the past of tier 2/3/4 teams doing it. there are teams that have been suspected of it (usually they are just tier 3 teams that just suck and ppl complain) and teams that have been caught doing it, but its fairly easy to avoid at least in counter-strike, dont bet on games that dont matter to teams $ wise and dont bet on tier 3 or below teams, especially in random russian leagues. Valve has done a good job making examples of teams, a big case was the american team IBuyPower who threw an unimportant game in a very obvious manner and 4 of the members were banned indefinitely. Also the site csgolounge has gotten a couple lower tier teams banned for match fixing. Ever since those cases and everyones been super anal about ppl throwing for skins and it seems like it has stopped for the most part.

none of the tier 1 teams throw and, the prizes and sponsors and all the twitch stuff has become way too big, as well as its much harder to throw in a 5v5 game cuz u have to contact the team, not just the individual. there was a case where a bettor contacted a team, payed them to throw, they agreed. the guy bet $10k in skins (huge for one game of CS:GO, especially for tier 3 teams like these) and massively shifted the odds cuz not a ton of bets were in for this match, making it really obvious. but then the team he tried to pay off went into full tryhard mode and destroyed the other team and then posted everything and exposed him afterwards, getting his 20+ accounts banned from csgolounge


but CS in general has sooooooo much variance. players getting DDOS'ed, substitutions unexpectedly coming, teams not caring. yesterday i bet on a game and one of the guys disconnected and the only other guy on the roster on that league's website for that team was asleep so they were forced to play 4v5 rather than using a sub or rescheduling... unlike other leagues which let u do all of these things. besides this kind of random variance (most can be avoided by checking up on player's/team's social media), CS:GO betting is super exploitable.

is the 20% rake beatable? you'd have to have huge yield

On October 27 2015 08:55 Smuft wrote: re: Matchfixing I think the biggest problem here is incentives in SC2 the 2nd tier progamers make shit money, let's say <50k a year which is probably being generous their prospects are also not very good, if they somehow rise up and rape everyone and win a tourney they get 40k maximum with most tourneys being much less If you can throw a few matches a year and stack up 100k+, can you really blame the players for being tempted? but in dota 2 and LOL there is tournaments w/ prize pools of 1m$+, not to mention streaming revenue, sponsorships, and endorsements - so these games are much more protected from match fixing they are definitely still there though, there isnt a sport on the planet that is totally protected from match fixing, its quite sick actually: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Match_fixing

UpMagic was one of the guys who got caught match fixing in SC1. I was living with those guys at the time, an afaik, they were surprised he was doing it. I mention his name cuz he was one of the most respected players and seemed like the least likely guy to match fix (out of the upper tier players). If he'll cheat, anyone will.

if you don't want to gamble and think the market's exploding why not make a betting site?