While the esports industry has been steadily and somehow slowly growing over the past years, it was in 2018 to 2020 that significant growth was seen. Before the pandemic, it was estimated that there were only around 170 million esports fans but when the pandemic came, this number rose to 250 million. It was last year when the UK Gambling Commission reported that the growth rate of esports betting reached an astounding 2992 percent in just 12 months.
The pandemic has negatively impacted many industries and the sports industry was, unfortunately, part of it. When the pandemic broke in March of last year, many major sports events had to be either canceled or postponed. For a few months, people just didn’t have much to see from the sports scene and punters didn’t have a lot to wager on.
Now that things are slowly getting better in some parts of the world, many are wondering whether esports will still be huge. After all, traditional sports events are already back, and online esports betting sites now have plenty of odds to offer on sports like football, cricket, basketball, and many more. Well, it is still forecasted that esports will continue to get bigger in the next few years. Some reports suggest that the industry will double in value within the next few years.
Many experts predict that esports will continue to do well despite the comeback of traditional sports. News UK even wrote in an article, “With such a large viewing audience, it was only a matter of time before betting sites got involved. While traditional bookmakers were understandably skeptical about the rise of esports, there has now been a wave of fully licensed esports betting sites that now give people an easy way to bet on massive games… Such a large number of esports betting sites have helped many people enjoy a legal and safe way to bet on competitive gaming as a form of entertainment.
With how big the esports tournament is getting, people are just really starting to see how fun and competitive these could be. Many people watch traditional sports for competition and this is also something that esports could give them.
