eSports
In the United States, a New Championship Esports Qualifying Series Will Debut
The crypto, esports, and gambling industry has been growing at an equal pace over the past few years. Naturally, states try to invest as much as possible in these sectors. Especially in the Esports sector, almost all countries compete with each other.
The most important of these countries is undoubtedly the United States of America. The USA is preparing for a significant Esports initiative in the year 2022. In the statement made by the USEF, the United States Esports Federation, they stated that they have a plan to cover the whole country. They also announced at the USEF Esports industry conference that they are starting to develop national championship tournaments that could be the first of their kind.
In addition, USEF will run an incentive campaign to attract Esports players and fans from all over the country. Then, the USEF announced that it would launch national qualifiers to form the US National Esports team. It seems that the rise of Esports will continue in 2022.
We decided to evaluate the relationship between USEF and Esports in today’s article. We will also briefly touch on the reflections of the rise of Esports on the crypto and gambling industry. If you’re ready, let’s start.
Esports is Growing Rapidly Globally
As we mentioned at the beginning of our article, the esports, crypto and gambling industry continues to grow at an equal pace. Because these three sectors continue to create a different ecosystem by influencing each other. For example, different platforms that allow you to bet on esports using crypto, such as Thunderpick have started to emerge. No matter where you live, you can place bets on online Esports tournaments around the world. This also helps the Esports ecosystem flourish. Sponsorships, partnerships and many other agreements are making the sectors come alive.
Naturally, governments want to get their share from a sector where cash flow is very high. We can see the first example of this with the United States. They want to identify the best players by starting a national Esports qualifying process.
However, they also want to create a forensic and standard elimination system for National team selection. It is also within the scope of organizing many tournaments to discover the best of USA’s digital world. Especially the fact that these tournaments are on a national scale is of great interest to municipalities and venues in that region. Because we think that the economic activity in the regions belonging to the cities where major Esports tournaments are held will be positively affected.
There are also Esports related initiatives in some schools at the moment. Perhaps in the future there will even be lessons like how and why to start Esports in all schools. Regardless, the future of Esports seems to cover the entire system.
USEF’s Goals
USEF’s newly elected president, David Geddes, made a series of statements about the process at the Esports travel summit. Florida has called to attend the conference with the leading names of the industry to be held in Daytona Beach. While the conference was organized by the Esports Travel Summit, the company’s vice president, Jason Gewirtz, made the following statement:
“The Esports Travel Summit was designed to bring together stakeholders in the esports industry to help support the growth of in-person esports events,”
When he came to the partnership with the USEF, he continued his words as follows;
“the perfect example of the kinds of connections we are looking to foster with our event, since their approach to uniting stakeholders and growing a national team is the best of what we see in the future of esports events. We’re excited to offer attendees in Daytona the chance to meet them and hear more about their vision for the future.”
Comments by General Manager David Geddes
Given the partnership, Mr. Geddes from USEF is very optimistic about the new plans. He started his speech by referring to covid and then the Esports industry and continued his words as follows;
“We are very excited by the post-covid wave of interest to host in-person competitions, the esports industry is unifying just like other NGBs, such as USA Soccer or USA Climbing.”
He also added the following to his speech on establishing a national team for Esports;
“He went on to add, “I am so delighted when I think about how our nation’s esports competitors will face off to qualify for the national team – celebrity esports athletes will be made during our championship series of events.”
USEF has now stepped up the work for the Esports team that will form the entire USA national team. They are considering sending a team to the IESF Panama cup in Buenos Aires. Likewise, it appears that they have long-term plans to participate in the 2022 IESF World championship in Indonesia.
Final Words
We greatly appreciate initiatives such as the USEF and IESF that will accelerate the development of Esports. In addition, the growth of Esports enables the development of sectors such as crypto and gambling. The Esports industry is expected to grow up to US$1.62 billion in the coming years. Currently, according to current figures, this value was equivalent to US$ 1.084 billion by 2021.
In fact, let’s take a look at the biggest Esports tournaments of 2022. Then you can understand exactly what we mean.
It seems that in the future, investments in Esports teams and players will increase considerably. We may start seeing Esports internationally, even at the Olympic games. This sounds extremely exciting.
If you want to access up-to-date information about the Esports world, don’t forget to follow us. Goodbye!
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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