eSports: A New Chance For Affiliates?

[MissExposé]

In the latest article by AffiliateInsider it is said that there is a huge potential for affiliates in eSports industry:

"eSports is attractive to a younger demographic. As long as developers continue to create entertaining and engaging games, and tournaments continue to dish out significant prize funds – then there will be more players emerging into the market. eSports is now regarded as a regular sport which is always evolving and changing. Millennials are the key to new players, and new blood into the industry."

Do you agree? What are your thoughts regarding mixing up the affiliate industry with eSports?

 

[esportsgroup]

There is potential for sure. I mean I've seen so many big brand and celebrities investing in eSports. Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Bmw, Armani, Michael Jordan, Drake, even KFC hosts their own eSports tournament. Twitch has paid US$90m for the Overwatch League rights. Who could imagine this few years ago? The prize fund for last year tournaments totalled US$200m. The ATP prize fund was only US$135M in comparison. These are facts and nobody can ignore them.

I have noticed that it's a trend for the largest iGaming companies to build up sites. Have seen plenty of esports affiliate portals owned by Catena. Have also seen that GameLounge were recruiting eSports staff probably for iGaming related projects a few weeks ago.

My thoughts are that a lot of people will fail if they try to succeed in this new vertical of the iGaming industry without an in-depth understanding and knowledge of the eSports industry. You need to be one of them in order to understand the industry and to succeed in it.

If you ask me, Vie.gg (giving them as an example because the article posted by MissExpose is about them) is the perfect example of what not do. Their UI/UK is terrible, not saying about their low odds and low game selections. The problem is the same with most of the other so-called eSports bookies. Who to blame for? I would say that they need fresh blood, new people, straight from the eSports industry. The only ones that worth to keep an eye on, in my opinion, LeoVegas esports bookie Pixel.bet are doing a great job so far.

 

[AussieDave]

Still have found memories of playing Half Life, way back when it was released in 1998. The following year, Counter Strike (add on multiplayer) was released. Spent many a night playing that.

Though, back then there were cheaters using software cheat mods. From memory (think it was called) Punkbuster, it was implemented to counteract these cheaters.

It's not surprising that Counter Strike has continued to stay very popular, and subsequently evolve over the last 20 years. Here's a clip Pro Counter Strike players. These guys are making some serious coin these days.

Maybe I should have stuck at that, with our industry starting to go pear-shaped, from being over-regulated. Either way, I think eSports has every chance of becoming the next big thing. But, you definitely need to know what your talking about. A fake can be spotted in an instant.

 

[TheGooner]

I guess I'm too old to appreciate the nuances of wiggling a joystick and hitting ABABABBBCA keys in sequence.
It's just not my thing - perhaps I'll find a writer in the future.

 

[xecutable]

New chance? Please I started with such website in 2009, when it was supposed to be "the next big thing". It isn't. Value ? Low! Sign ups? Low!

It gets hyped up a little bit every now and then and after that it goes cold. Not to mention not many serious books offer odds and even if they do, the markets are quite mediocre.

Not to mention the whole dilemma about "is it targeting children is it not?" After all none of these games are 18+ and some of the audience is minors. Trying to sponsor a team with a betting company on their shirts is quite unethical.

Again, this was the same story from nearly 11 years ago. Pinnacle were quite hyped about it and I was working closely with my manager, but they saw the same thing. The average value was just not worth the effort.

 

[Ozpoker]

One of our highest turnover players this year came form an esports site.
I agree there is a lot of low value but that makes sense given the demographic and likely disposable income.
As the demographic matures so too will the value.

 

[NDG]

I don't understand the interest in watching other people play video games.
I enjoy playing GTA and other video games from time to time, but as an
adult, I have absolutely zero interest in watching others play the games.

 

[esportsgroup]

I don't understand the interest in watching other people play video games.
I enjoy playing GTA and other video games from time to time, but as an
adult, I have absolutely zero interest in watching others play the games.

Then you are clearly can't make the difference between a video game and an eSports game. GTA is not eSports.

 

[NDG]

I do know the difference.. but I just don't see the appeal of watching other people play DOTA 2 or other competitive games.

 

[DaftDog]

What is the difference between watching a football game or an esports match on tv? None really, both are competitive and, depending on your preferences, entertaining.

 

[xecutable]

"As the demographic matures so too will the value."

As the demographic matures, their interests mature. Games become less of a thing and life kicks in. Bills start to show up, responsibilities, family, you name it.

Of course there can be big bettors, or many. The keyword from the article was "the next big thing" which has been a label used a decade ago, as well as the "esports is NOW considered regular sport". It's been like that for at least 8-9 years.

Unless there's some graph with numbers showing a spike of over 9000% in the last year or something, this is just a regular sport niche.

 

[Ozpoker]

"As the demographic matures so too will the value."

As the demographic matures, their interests mature. Games become less of a thing and life kicks in. Bills start to show up, responsibilities, family, you name it.

Of course there can be big bettors, or many. The keyword from the article was "the next big thing" which has been a label used a decade ago, as well as the "esports is NOW considered regular sport". It's been like that for at least 8-9 years.

Unless there's some graph with numbers showing a spike of over 9000% in the last year or something, this is just a regular sport niche.

eSports specific sites will always have a place - like football specific, racing specific. BUT esports specific bookmakers will not last long term. You are right its just another modality to bet on and will ultimately end up just another option on the regular brands. Its there now but most are legless and following esports price leaders. That will change as the value does.

Point is I see a lot of affiliates promoting esports only bookie brands - that will end badly. When they get absorbed or bought out, or when they fold - you'll have no revenue. They won't migrate your players over when they get bought out in most cases.

 

[Slawete]

I don't know much about eSport, but I'm afraid that gamers(not gamblers) and bettors are from two different worlds. A bettor doesn't need to be a sportsman, while to understand eSports you need yourself to be a gamer. The way I perceive a gamer is like a person playing games at home, and maybe somewhere in the background is running his favorite eSport tournament on TV or computer.

 

[PROFRBcom]

We've written some eSports content. Hired a writer who was a sponsored pro eSports player for a while. Yet none of the pages really get any traffic.

I can't point to any player sign ups from the content.

Even if we did get sign ups from the content, the betting seems sparse. The young people I talk to that play these games have very little disposable money. Fewer still seem prone to laying bets at all, and if they did, they would seemingly do it amongst themselves and settle up with some P2P app that all the kiddies are using these days.

Just doesn't seem like a profitable thing to pursue.

With that said, we will continue to trickle out some content, maybe one day we will get some value out of it.