eSports
Start Your Engines! PlaySugarHouse.com In New Jersey Is Taking Bets On Virtual NASCAR Races
PlaySugarHouse.com is among the first sportsbooks in the U.S. to drop the flag on virtual NASCAR races. The sportsbook has been approved by New Jersey regulators to offer betting on the 2020 eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series. New Jersey players will now be able to place bets on a virtual auto race and the first race in the series they can bet on is the Toyota Owners 400 in Richmond on April 19.
The Cup Series races are as realistic as can be, featuring real stars of past and present including Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. The series of races, which started March 22, are being broadcast on FOX Sports during typical NASCAR broadcast times and have been huge hits drawing over a million viewers to the fierce iRacing competition.
“We are happy to be able to offer such an exciting and competitive entertainment event,” said Mattias Stetz, C.O.O of Rush Street Interactive, which operates PlaySugarHouse.com. “It’s also fun to see how these talented drivers will compare in the virtual world of competitive racing.”
The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series is offering exclusive entertainment on the premier motorsports racing simulation; the same one used for years by NASCAR’s biggest stars to prepare for real world race events. This form of virtual sports is different than others because the simulator offers a full NASCAR experience down to the dynamics of the car and the real-life differences between track surfaces being raced on. Ultimately, the eNASCAR iRacing Series offers a competitive edge that traditional console videogames just can’t match.
The virtual racing schedule is designed to follow the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, which had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Along with the Toyota Owners 400, the virtual NASCAR series includes the Geico 500 at Talledega and the Cup Series race at Dover and looks to make virtual stops at fan-favorite tracks from coast to coast.
ABOUT RUSH STREET INTERACTIVE:
Founded in 2012, Chicago-based Rush Street Interactive (RSI) launched its first betting site, PlaySugarHouse.com, in New Jersey in September 2016. The company subsequently made history by becoming the first operator in the United States to offer a fully integrated online sportsbook and casino. In addition, RSI was the first company to launch legal online sportsbooks both in Pennsylvania (PlaySugarHouse.com) and Indiana (BetRivers.com) as well as being the first to open a legal sportsbook in the state of New York (@ Rivers Casino in Schenectady) and, most recently, in Illinois (@ Rivers Casino in Des Plaines). RSI also operates in-casino sportsbooks at Rivers Casinos in Pittsburgh & Philadelphia and at the historic French Lick Resort in Indiana. BetRivers.com is also the exclusive official sportsbook partner for the Philadelphia Flyers & Wells Fargo Center. RSI was the first US-based gaming operator to launch a legal and regulated online sportsbook in Latin America (Rushbet.co in Colombia). Rush Street Interactive is also the developer and operator of a leading social gaming platform currently deployed at the group’s affiliated land-based casinos and selected third party partners. Rush Street Interactive was named “Mobile Operator of the Year” in North America at the EGR North America Awards 2019 and “American Operator of the Year” & “Casino Operator of the Year” at the American Gambling Awards in 2019. For more information, visit rushstreetinteractive.com.
SOURCE Rush Street Interactive
eSports
CAPCOM’S STREET FIGHTERTM 6 GOING TO COLLEGE THIS FALL
- CSMG will create and operate College Street FighterTM Tour in North America for the 2024-25 academic year
- College conference Street Fighter 6 champions will punch their ticket to the national Collegiate Esports Commissioner’s Cup (CECC) & May Madness in 2025
eSports
R&D rethink needed for sportsbooks to harness esports’ power
Esports betting is still grappling with a perception problem amongst operators. Despite the leaps and bounds in product development made by suppliers – particularly in the last two years – esports hasn’t shaken off the image built in the late 2010s.
Our good friend, Oliver Niner, Head of Sales at PandaScore, has been kind to share the below article with us.
There’s scepticism around esports betting’s value, how well it can actually perform and what’s needed to make it appeal to bettors. A big part of that comes down to perception, which shapes the research and development (R&D) choices made by each operator.
Self-fulfilling prophecy?
Operators who have put the research and development (R&D) resources into esports are seeing excellent growth, while others are still treating it like part of a long tail. The lack of a uniform approach to esports often translates into hesitancy to be bullish and invest in esports.
Whereas in the United States, post-PASPA sports betting has exploded and operators are seeking to capture as much territory and market share as possible because in most cases, you switch the lights on and the money comes in. It’s, of course, good business sense to take opportunities like this – you can apply the same templates used elsewhere on an incredibly lucrative market.
This kind of approach has been attempted for esports and hasn’t found the same success. Granted, the legislation for betting on esports has been somewhat slower than that of sports betting and iGaming.
However, bullish operators have acknowledged the fact that esports hasn’t found the same success in regulated states and asked what can be done differently, while for others, esports has been thrown into the too-hard basket or relegated to the bargain bucket.
For the latter, the fate of the esports vertical becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy – especially if an operator already using a budget esports product that throttles its very growth.
It takes two to tango
When esports is discussed in broader betting circles, you’ll often hear different versions of the same talking point: the problem with esports is no one is doing it well, it doesn’t innovate.
This argument is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Esports is a driver of innovation, and it is sportsbook R&D that is holding it back.
Multiple suppliers on the market are investing significant resources into R&D, and bullish operators are leveraging these product innovations to acquire new customers and create engagements made for the internet age.
There are understandable reasons why sports betting doesn’t innovate. It’s largely because operators focus on acquisition, entering new territories and spending money on data rights. But the actual R&D on sportsbook products is left lacking, with ever-increasing cost-per-acquisition (CPA) numbers a clear symptom of this.
It means that if an operator does decide to use or acquire an esports specialist supplier but does little to cater its product and attempts to just lay the sports betting template over the top, of course performance will be throttled.
It’s like putting a Ferrari engine in a Prius – no offence to Toyota or Prius owners.
The same problem exists on the platform supplier front. Platforms are understandably focused on compliance and getting customers live, not necessarily improving models or their products.
Even the idea that if you just acquire an innovative company the problem is solved or you have found the solution, doesn’t hold water. In many cases, the company is acquired and plenty of noise is made about it, but there’s little organisational investment in R&D afterwards.
It’s not just in esports
These problems extend to customer acquisition and marketing for most emerging markets, not just esports. There’s a rush to use the same old playbook in newer sectors because it’s easy.
The fantasy vs. house sector in the US is already experiencing an acquisition arms race. As analyst Dustin Gouker points out, deposit match bonuses for new users on fantasy vs house products have jumped from $100 to as high as $500 in some places.
This is the same race that played out in sports betting and despite the costs, there’s little effort from most operators to try something different. There’s less work when you just put the same acquisition template on an emerging sector and call it a day. This seems to be an accepted practice in the industry, for better or for worse.
Esports betting success requires ongoing dialogue
Rather than attempting to wedge esports into hegemonic sportsbook approaches, sportsbooks need to take a completely unique approach.
The fact is the betting sector has barely scratched the surface – communities of esports fans are still dormant. Canadian operator Rivalry has built a successful, esports-first business by embracing the ever-changing internet culture that esports inhabits. French esports organisation Karmine Corp recently sold out a 30,000-person stadium for an event with no prize money up for grabs.
Innovative products developed on the supplier side like microbetting and betbuilders are only half of the equation.
Maximising esports revenues requires institutional investment, ongoing R&D and collaboration between suppliers and operators to create products and experiences. This includes having staff on the operator side that can drive and push the product further, and crucially, rethinking current sportsbook strategies and practices.
Building experiences for betting’s greatest emerging market – one that caters to your future core audience – takes investment, innovation and a willingness to experiment. If the industry wants to make the most of the Millennial and Gen Z audience that will become its primary customers, investment into R&D and close collaboration between suppliers and operators is needed. Many hands makes light work.
eSports
North Star Network Acquires Um Dois Esportes
North Star Network has acquired Um Dois Esportes, a sports coverage and analysis site created from the merger of Gazeta Do Povo and Tribuna do Paraná in 2020.
Julien Josset, co-founder of North Star Network, said: “Thank you to the team at GRPCOM for their faith in us to take the brand forward. Um Dois Esportes is an established and renowned site in Paraná State, and we’re excited about the challenge of developing this asset.
“We’re happy to maintain the collaboration with the existing editorial team, and look forward to working with them, bringing our unique NSN approach, to take UDE forward.”
NSN’s signing of Um Dois Esportes is the media house’s fourth acquisition of 2024, following the recent deals to purchase UK-based SportsMole and MrFixitsTips, as well as Chilean site AlAireLibre, which was announced in March.
The latest addition to the North Star media portfolio joins existing assets including Top Mercato, Afrik-Foot, and Vringe. The Paris-based company already oversees a significant Brazilian operation, delivering over 6 million sessions per month, from the likes of Trivela, Premier League Brasil and Lakers Brasil.
NSN will retain Curitiba-based journalists from the Um Dois Esportes legacy team to maintain the asset’s unique tone and popular coverage of the Paraná sports scene across site and social.
Rafael Mello, Director of GRPCOM, said: “We were surprised by the interest, and initially had no intention of selling Um Dois, but as the conversations evolved, we realised this was a serious group with good intentions. We were very happy to see our project being valued by a large international group and going global, demonstrating the quality of the content we produced.
“We’re also proud that North Star inherited our journalists, who are truly responsible for the success of the product we offer readers every day.”
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