Do you think eSports is the new niche ?

[vitalbet]

http://img.com/news/news/2015/septem...--img-for.aspx Just an addition!

[LukeC]

Esports is an area I've been involved in for over 10 years. I have csgobetting.com which gets a fair bit of traffic but almost no conversions. Pretty much everyone just wants to bet skins at the moment, so I think changing that mentality is necessary for it to really pick up as something worthwhile for the bigger affiliates.

[Muppet]

Whats the deal with the skins? I was recently approached by someone with a betting site that people wager skins on to try to do some contra deal. How does the site make money? Can the skins be sold on steam or something?

[LukeC]

Whats the deal with the skins? I was recently approached by someone with a betting site that people wager skins on to try to do some contra deal. How does the site make money? Can the skins be sold on steam or something?

They can be sold on Steam Marketplace or via third parties

[Voids]

Esports is an area I've been involved in for over 10 years. I have csgobetting.com which gets a fair bit of traffic but almost no conversions. Pretty much everyone just wants to bet skins at the moment, so I think changing that mentality is necessary for it to really pick up as something worthwhile for the bigger affiliates.

Hi Luke, at 10 years I assume you were somewhat involved in 1.6? Also your site is down atm.

[LukeC]

Hi Luke, at 10 years I assume you were somewhat involved in 1.6? Also your site is down atm.

Yeah - though I started playing some inferior games such as Battlefield 2. If you followed 1.6, I ran Crack Clan / Power Gaming - never played it.

Mind sharing what browser etc. you are using? It's working fine for me.

[xecutable]

We have found most of our turnover on CS:GO which interest is mainly European. Countries like Russia , Germany , Netherlands , Poland , Czech and Ukraine

That still doesn't answer the question, how are you gonna reach the niche true potential, without your 2 major markets especially South Korea, where gaming is on a different level of anything we know in Europe or anywhere else in the world.

Im sorry but without the US and SK, I find it very hard to believe, you'd reach numbers worthy of the industry, worth spending money and investing in this area.

In the last 6 years, I've seen 3 different brands get hyped over it, pushing promotions and stuff and at the end if not give up on it, cut the expenses to a minimum and just keep a tab with "Esports betting".

A team sponsorship would be ideal to promote a given book, but considering you'd have to compete with Hardware manufacturers, who definitely kill the revenue from gamer wannabes who spent thousands on a single pc (including me ) it will come with a steep price IF they ever let u promote.

The whole 18+ concept on a place where there would be minors is a problem and can't see why the esport industry would wanna mess it up. Perhaps sponsor a streamer, but then again that's against Twitch (owned by Youtube, hence Google now) terms. So the only place to promote is on affiliate websites, which really narrows down your exposure.

But hey good luck with that. If you manage to pull it off, perhaps in a year or two, people will be more willing to rethink it.

[Mattbar]

I get a lot of people searching for eSports thinking that its just another term for virtual sports (which is why I have lumped them together in my guides).

Not sure how big the market is in the UK, maybe we need to wait for all the fans to turn 18 first

[vitalbet]

That still doesn't answer the question, how are you gonna reach the niche true potential, without your 2 major markets especially South Korea, where gaming is on a different level of anything we know in Europe or anywhere else in the world.

Im sorry but without the US and SK, I find it very hard to believe, you'd reach numbers worthy of the industry, worth spending money and investing in this area.

Once again - SK follows League of Legends and Star Craft. DOTA 2 and CS:GO are mainly European interested.

About numbers , you can see that pinnacle kept it for over 4 years now and they do share their numbers which of course are by far from the main sports but it is still over 20 000 000 annually.

We are not trying to convince anyone to promote eSports , we just wanted to hear the community's opinion on the matter. We believe that it will grow even more and become an undisputed part of worlds gaming scene.

Thank you

[xecutable]

True. Though they were a lot more enthusiastic at the start, talking about team sponsorship event sponsorship etc. I do hope it will develop in the future, though I'm a bit skeptical. As a gamer myself Id like to see it rise up.

[betarades]

I think esports will be more popular in the next years. Maybe its a good choice to invest on it.

[universal4]

Is there any betting allowed on amateur events?

If so, can bets still be placed when children (those under 17) are participants?

Where is the line drawn?

I admit I did not know much about how the plans were taking shape on the league or its structure so I have been reading a bit.

Currently the League Challenger Series, the LCS requires players to be 17 years or above, a rule that spreads across Europe and North America, but does not apply in other regions.

From what I have been able to find out so far, RIOT rules that anyone under 17 is forced to sit out of any automatic promotions into the higher positions which would poise them to advance in pro divisions. (if any of this is incorrect, those who know more about this niche please clear this part up)

However looking at the entry level for SMITE, the age is 13.

I think it is very clear that gaming and gaming systems are targeted at both adults and CHILDREN. Also from reading an ever growing list of gaming forums, many players under the age of 17 are clearly trying to create enough buzz to make it so they can compete.

Currently children can compete, but should they be allowed to or move into the pros?

Currently, as far as I know betting does not take place on high school football, but it does on College and the NFL. Is betting not taking place on high school sports because of age? If so, will esports bend to many of players wants and eventually allow younger players, and if so will betting then continue so that CHILDREN are being bet on.

I understand some of the speculation and really far out conclusions I made are kinda stretching it, but I would also think that 40 or 60 years ago I do not think people envisioned where betting on college sports is today either.

Rick
Universal4

[universal4]

I see that the Call of Duty World league (will or has) started requiring an age of 18.

eSports Malaysia ESM which launched in May has no minimum age restriction.

Rick
Universal4

[lolTRICKEDu]

I have been working in the esports niche for some time, and the betting part of it surely has had a big spurt of growth in 2015. Almost all of the betting sites are offering bets on the biggest games now. I've talked to some of these sites and many are very high on it's growth and believe it can become huge, but I've seen this before and they probably just say that hoping it will become a self fulfilling prophecy. Still, the market has been good, plenty of regions are taking a part in it and so on.

The biggest problem I have with the niche right now is the betting with skins which sees NO regulation. This means that kids underage can easily bet with money (although indirectly).

Besides that, so far it is way more convenient for people just betting skins and that hurts the traditional betting markets. Plenty of people reach our site looking for places to bet skins, so the market for betting can be misleading in that way.

[TheSpry]

What does 'betting with skins' even mean?

[Muppet]

Skins are sort of graphical costumes for in game characters or items that make them look different. Hard as it may be to believe, people are willing to pay money for them and there are sites that allow people to use them to buy in as currency to gamble.

As LukeC said above...

They can be sold on Steam Marketplace or via third parties