We’ve seen esports really hit the ground running in the past half-decade, whether it’s professional streamers using platforms like Twitch or professional leagues devoted to playing a specific game (like League of Legends, for instance).
Esports: A Pastime on the Rise
The beauty of the internet is that everyone has a chance to take part in video games, whether playing themselves or watching others do so (Twitch is free to watch for all users, regardless of if they have an account with the service).
While the average football fan today may not be interested in fledgling professional leagues playing Overwatch or Fortnite, the times are changing as a new generation of Americans has grown up idolizing Twitch streamers just as much as they have star athletes like Tom Brady or LeBron James.
This is a trend we’ve seen take place time and again across the history of sports in the United States. In the early 1900s, for instance, sports fans didn’t take professional leagues like the NFL seriously at all, preferring college sports because they were the established brand at the time. These days, the NFL is a multi-billion-dollar league, the most popular sports brand in North America. College sports retain their popularity, but no league has been able to match the success that the NFL has.
Upcoming Events
Interested in getting your feet wet in the esports action? Whether you want to play video games casually from the comfort of your own home or want to take your game up a notch in a competitive atmosphere, there are plenty of opportunities for you to get started here in Ohio.
The town of Portsmouth is located on the banks of the Ohio River, roughly two hours from Columbus and Cincinnati. They’re looking to boost tourism in a big way in September as they’re set to open The Vault Ohio, a facility devoted specifically to playing esports. Once again, there’s something for everyone at The Vault, as they’ll offer opportunities to make use of some of the newest cutting-edge technologies that gamers have at their disposal, both for those who are just there to have fun and for those who walk in with a serious desire to compete. If you’re interested in taking your esports talent to the next level, this is a great way to see if it’s worth the time and money to get a top-flight gaming system.
Many of the tournaments taking place in Ohio right now are of the grassroots variety: take a look at initiatives like Esports Ohio, a nonprofit organization that hosts esports tournaments at the middle and high school level, eventually crowning a state champion in the late spring.
Other tournaments provide a chance for savvy bettors to get a piece of the action as you climb up the ranks to collegiate esports competitions.
The Buckeye State will always be tied to the history of college esports in some fashion, as Miami University in Oxford became the first Division 1 athletics program in the country to offer a varsity esports program in 2016, getting out ahead of the curve.
Seven years later, 39 colleges in the state have their own esports programs, including nine Division 1 schools: these tournaments are covered with their own DraftKings Ohio promo code to make sure that fans have a bit more excitement during the event. As the fall semester is set to begin soon, the esports season will be in full force.
Here’s a look at how the betting industry could change the face of the growing esports market.
E-Sports Betting: Overview and Outlook
One of the coolest things about esports is that the framework for a booming betting market is already in place. With sports like the NFL, you have a maximum of 16 games to bet on each week. Top esports performers like Ninja and Dream can take part in 16 games in a matter of hours: the average Fortnite match, for instance, runs for 20 minutes, and Ninja streams for up to seven hours each day.
Similarly, ranking systems exist for many online games, whether it’s Call of Duty, Madden or something else entirely. By matching players up with a competitor who has a similar level of talent, the potential for betting is greater than ever with millions of ranked video game lovers around the world.
It’ll take some time to figure out the legal framework of the budding industry as it pertains to video games (as we’ve seen with the pattern of sports betting legalization across the United States, state legislators and gambling control boards take their time figuring out how to let the industry run in an ethical and safe manner), but with this kind of potential on the table, the sky’s the limit.
Part of why the mobile betting market has seen such an explosive rise in popularity is the fact that you can place a wager in a matter of moments with your phone or laptop. It’s the betting version of online shopping or impulse buying, where it’s all the more tempting to dive in when you have the capacity to do so at any given time, no matter where you are or what you’re doing.
The boom of sports betting has shown that people will wager on just about anything, provided there’s an opportunity to do so. When you look at events like the Super Bowl, one can place bets on what color of Gatorade will be dumped on the head of the winning coach or how many outfit changes the halftime performers will go through.
Even if you aren’t a big sports (or esports) fan, there’s something for everyone to bet on, and the rise of the gambling industry has brought yet another level of popularity to fledgling leagues. Savvy gamblers want to do all the research they can in order to sniff out a winner, so that means more attention and revenue for competitions that have long lagged behind the popularity of North America’s big four sports: the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL.
It’ll be fascinating to see what the Overwatch League or Call of Duty League are up to in a few years time as sports betting’s prevalence continues to grow.
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