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When people talk about the esports betting industry, often it is in relation to the general sports betting industry with the notion that esports betting is simply an offshoot of this larger, all-encompassing online betting industry that covers all sports, esports, virtuals and the like.
However, is it right to lump esports betting in simply as a constituent part of the greater sports betting market? New forecasts suggest that rather than simply esports betting being popular due to the interest in the sports betting market, that there may well be an opposite view, and that is that the reason sports betting is thriving, could well be down to the popularity of esports betting.
Is that the case? To examine this in more detail, we need to take a look at some of the forecast data for both sports and esports betting industries over the next few years.
Bright Future Forecast for Esports and Sports Betting
That data shows that both sports betting and esports betting seem to have a very healthy future ahead of them and that this future is built on sustained growth since at least 2020.
Statista showed that since 2012 in terms of viewership, the number of regular viewers of esports has increased from 58 million to a projected figure of 297 million in 2022. Occasional viewers have increased in even greater numbers from 76 million to a projected 347 million viewers in 2022.
Of course, as more people view esports, then the more they want to become involved in the offshoot industries and technologies that thrive around it and esports betting is a prime example of this.
A report by Technavio reports that as well as esports betting revenue hitting the 100 billion dollar mark in 2020, it will grow to around $125.18 billion dollars within three years.
Estimates suggest that esports betting will grow annually at a rate of around 11% per year, at least for the foreseeable future, which is a staggering rate of growth.
The Key Role that Online Esports Betting Plays
What is notable is that as the esports betting industry continues to grow at a rampant pace, so too does the overall sports betting industry and it is hard not to see the link between the two. However, this new evidence suggests that it is the esports industry which is facilitating this growth in the sports betting industry, rather than the other way around.
Part of that is because that esports betting in general targets a particularly difficult to hit market group, the Millennials, as we looked at in a recent article. Traditional sports betting companies have found it difficult to engage with this particular demographic of customer, which is where esports has come in so useful as it is incredibly popular with this particular section of society.
Specialist Sites v General Betting Sites
One other aspect to note is that esports betting is also now becoming far more prevalent, detailed and engaging on more generalised betting sites. Although some notably strong esports betting-only sites still remain very popular, the fact that esports betting is now accessible on what were typically sports betting sites means that you will get inevitable crossover between the two markets at some point
The future of sports betting and esports betting are undoubtedly linked, but the success of both does not necessarily depend on the success of each other and the good news for punters everywhere is that both are in rude health.
