Stepan Shulga
Head of esports at Parimatch
Parimatch is well known for their presence in the esports industry . What
makes esports interesting from your point of view ? Parimatch is data-driven company , all of our decisions are based on analytics , insights , reports , researches , and so on . It ' s really important to understand what ' s going on around the world , especially in sports industry . So , no secret , what is growing faster than anything else in the sports and entertainment industry ? Esports ! And we must rely on this fact . We are considering ourselves as " digital entertainment ", and trying to reach a wide a range of audience as possible . We discovered , that punters are ready to enjoy esports and realise that part of the audience is excited about esports much more than traditional sports , and even more ! A lot of punters know and respect esports as a stand-alone sport . Honestly , esports is a great key for young audiences and must-have solutions to cover all marketing channels for your brand .
Are there some unique needs of esports betting fans compared to your
traditional customers ? Unique needs are based on expertise and some existing standards . You have to provide streams with broadcasts , use the same language , icons , know differences between " game ", " map ", " best of free ", " double elimination "... But after all , it ' s a question of time and team , that would execute this .
Is there a difference between sponsorship of an esports team ( Fnatic ) and
football team ( Juventus )? People and communications are always different . Cultural and language details , and of course kind of sports . Negotiation is a bit easier in esports , but big names in traditional sports teams have vast experience and many cases instead . Eventually , with football teams you are thinking how to organise presence in TV broadcasts and photo materials , and with esports teams you are focused on social media of contracted team at first
Esports betting is constantly growing , where do you see it in five years ? TOP3 for sure , depends on geography and core audience of bookmaker , but in general - football top1 , esports - top3 .