Esports is an industry that continues to attract a lot of investors, gamers, and spectators. This attention has generated a lot of money, but does this influx of revenue do anything to legitimize the sport?
When you look at the facts surrounding any emerging industry, typically the investors and the amount are the typical indicators of their success. But, when the new industry revolves around competition, as Esports is wont to do, this information is simply a nice little tidbit that shows that industry is indeed moving forward.
The strongest indication of success, when it comes to these types of competitive industries, tends to be whether people bet on it. And when you look at the number of places online that were created o take wagers or make peer-to-peer bets easier, it becomes quite clear that betting volume is indeed a great indicator of the different gaming community trends.
Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA basketball team and a billionaire, recently invested some of his money into the latest betting site, Unikrn. Just a few months later, Ashton Kutcher also put his bid in. Cuban and a team of investors, which includes Elisabeth Murdoch – the daughter of Rupert Murdoch – put their fortunes together and invested a total of 7 million for the startup.
The gaming site lets users bet on a wide variety of online gaming tourneys. But, ironically, although some of its investors are American, it’s important to note that the United States has laws on the books that make doing any type of betting online for real cash illegal.
But, Cuban is not alone – the legality issue didn’t other American websites from jumping on Esports bandwagon. For example, Pinnacle was one of the first to take wagers on these types of games, almost a decade ago. Just four years later, they’d processed over a million wagers on Esports alone.
Furthermore, the number of games that that gamers can bet on are limited to the most competitive and popular games, like Defense of Ancients, Counter-Strike, and League of Legends. But, it’s also important to know that other gaming sites have also added more games, like titles from FIFA, Madden, Halo, and Call of Duty, to their roster.
Although Americans are some of the only people on the planet with the ability to bet on Esports, they are available to participate in some games where they can satiate their gaming jollies. But, much like a sugar substitute, it can’t replace the real thing. For instance, they can’t bet on sites where real cash is a prize, even if they used authentic currency to sign up for the site.
For instance, Unikrns uses ‘unikoins’ that can be won by playing games. Once gamers have accumulated certain amounts, these coins can be exchanged for a variety of prizes, like game controllers, and more.
As you can see, this gaming site is modeled after many online poker hangouts that allow gamers to use faux money to play games for real cash.
Dependent on how you look at it, this is bads news for American gamers who want to showcase their skills online. Unlike other global gamers, who can head over to Euro palace online casino anytime they want to play their favorite casino games for real cash, those poor souls can’t. But, for investors in America as well as other countries all over the world, esports is indeed a great investment. As a matter of fact, experts predict that it will be worth billions of dollars in just a few years; 2020 to be exact.
What do you think about Esports and Esports betting? Have you ever tried your hand at it? Share your thoughts and/or experiences below.