Esports betting has been growing in popularity for a few years now, but really took off in 2020. Of course, the main reason being that due to COVID-19, most other traditional sports were paused, so that only sports available for punters were esports.

As a result, the betting sites themselves started promoting esports heavily placing them on the homepage and pushing promotions to entice users to try their luck. The betting sites also started to educate their customers on how to bet on esports and the various markets available.

When traditional sports began again, there was a definite dip in esports betting, but the volume of bets are still significantly higher than they were previously. What will it take however for esports betting to go more mainstream?

Awareness and education
Punters need to be made aware that betting on esports is an option, either via their current bookie, or by registering with a dedicated esports betting site like Luckbox or LootBet.

Once they are aware, they need to be educated as to how the gameplay works and which betting markets (especially live betting markets) are available.

So if punters don’t understand it, they won’t trust it or enjoy it. Education is key, as games are very different. The betting on CS:GO will be very different to the betting on LOL.

Legal issues
Esports betting is not legal in quite a few places that already permit sports betting. As it’s viewed as a different sport, the regulators need to understand it, and then license bookies to bet on it. Already this is changing, but most f the big betting markets are still closed off for esports betting.

Fairness and collusion
Both bookies and punters need to trust that the games will be played fairly, and this will only happen if the regulators get involved.

So, in overall, esports betting is set to keep growing but it will take a few years for it to crack the top 5 betting sports by volume.

***Sponsored by livescore***

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Tags: eSport, eSports, Gamer, Gamers, Gaming, PC games, Video games