eSports
Liquipedia.net Partners with Esports Entertainment Group’s VIE.bet, the World’s Most Transparent Esports Betting Platform
Esports Entertainment Group, Inc. and its secure esports betting platform VIE.bet have partnered with Liquipedia.net, the world’s largest esports wiki and an affiliate of top esports organization Team Liquid. VIE.bet and Liquipedia will partner to create the most community-centric and responsible betting integration in esports, launching May 3, 2021.
Through their alliance, VIE.bet will be integrated into select Liquipedia pages, allowing Liquipedia’s millions of monthly visitors to see betting odds and place bets through VIE while having a safe experience. By partnering together, Liquipedia and VIE.bet are able to instill safety mechanisms that ensure betting information is only shown to users of legal age in VIE’s 150 whitelisted jurisdictions around the world, with another license in New Jersey pending. Betting information will be shown with visible guidelines on gambling safety, and users who prefer not to see sports betting odds will have the option to toggle them off. In partnership with VIE.bet, Liquipedia will also be publishing Esports Betting Advertising Guidelines as a Commons Wiki resource, in order to establish esports industry-wide best practices for safety, integrity and accountability in betting advertisements and partnerships.
VIE.bet and Liquipedia are committed to collaborating with enforcement and integrity institutions dedicated to safe and responsible esports betting and advertising. This includes working with the Esports Integrity Coalition (ESIC), a not-for-profit association taking responsibility for disruption, protection, investigation and prosecution of all forms of cheating in esports. In 2019, the coalition designated Esports Entertainment Group an Anti-Corruption Supporter, enabling VIE.bet to participate in ESIC’s global suspicious bet alert system, contribute to anti-corruption education initiatives, and tap into ESIC’s accumulated best practices for sports betting.
Grant Johnson, CEO of Esports Entertainment Group, said: “Esports communities have incredible passion and competitive drive, which makes for an exciting betting landscape. Unfortunately, that passion and drive is often taken advantage of, and there’s significant distrust towards betting platforms in the space. We believe there’s a better way forward in esports betting that comes from collaboration with trusted institutions. We’re proud to work with Liquipedia and VIE.bet on this new initiative, and we’re confident in VIE.bet’s ability to foster an active esports betting community by building a safe, trusted experience.”
Bux Syed, Director of VIE, said: “Liquipedia has been part of my daily life for at least 10 years. I use them to check the latest tournaments, upcoming matches and results; me and 700 million other esports fans like me visit their platform each year. As a new esports betting brand, we’re aiming to grow our brand through community based projects. It’s a no brainer for us to partner with Liquipedia and its community to educate esports fans about safe and regulated gambling. My team and I are extremely excited to work with the Liquipedia team, and we’re looking forward to introducing VIE and engaging with its community.”
Erik Saler, Head of Liquipedia, said: “A lot of esports sites have integrated betting in careless ways, sadly. As one of the largest resources in esports we not only felt a responsibility to do this better, but we also felt that if we do it right – with the right partner, in the right way – we could help improve betting in esports as a whole and make it safer for all. We are proud to have found like-minded allies in VIE.bet who share our values of community, safety, responsibility, and integrity.”
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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