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Esports trends in 2022 and beyond Narrowing the esports and betting gap
NARROWING THE ESPORTS AND BETTING GAP
It ’ s almost impossible to draw parallels between esports and traditional sports ; there is a huge knowledge gap to be bridged
THE COVID-19 pandemic and its disruption to the traditional sports betting market led to accelerated esports betting growth in 2020 and 2021 . Many gamblers who had never interacted with the sport before had the chance to do so for the first time .
According to Market Insights , the global esports betting market grew to US $ 12.3bn in 2020 , and is expected to reach around $ 20.7bn by 2027 , at a compound annual growth rate of 13.1 %.
Earlier this year , EveryMatrix claimed there is evidence that the pandemic coincided with esports betting growing as much as 40 times – with most bets placed on sporting simulations .
However , industry experts say there is still a vast amount of work to do to ensure the esports and esports betting industry can keep in step with each other compared to their traditional sport counterparts .
One of the challenges is the high knowledge barrier present in esports . Unlike traditional sports such as football , basketball and tennis , esports is a catch-all term that encompasses a vast array of different esports titles and game genres , as well as differing match rules across tournaments and leagues .
Traditional sportsbooks trying to enter the space will find that between new esports titles being introduced , tournament and match rules that can differ according to the organiser , and sporadic game-balancing changes by developers , it is extremely difficult to
Esports trends in 2022 and beyond