Once you take a look at the viewing figures and global popularity of certain sports, such as football, It might sound like an exaggeration even to question that eSports could become the biggest gambling market within the next couple of decades. The truth is this is the fastest-growing gambling and professional competitive market in the world.

Professional video gaming has benefitted from the internet in the same ways gambling has and has utilized the immense capability to appeal to millions of customers that may have otherwise been incredibly difficult to reach. Now that gambling and eSports have become so entwined, the next big question is how big will it get? Is the sky the limit?

Early Growth & Emerging Gambling Markets

For those people who take a casual, passing interest in eSports, it might be a surprise to hear that these tournaments and teams predate the internet by quite some distance. The first eSports teams formed around 50 years ago for tournaments, with Atari credited as developing the current model of putting the world’s best players head to head. Back then, arcade games like Space Invaders would attract the top players to play for a fixed cash prize, with the first tournament attracting thousands of players.

Today, it is a more polished affair. Millions of dollars are at stake in eSports, and a whole industry underneath it exists due to this success from game designing, social media management, and event coordinators. Companies have long identified just how profitable associated markets are, and the gambling market has arguably the most significant room for growth. Due to the 24/7 nature of eSports gaming and development, any news eSports gambling generates stretches across timezones and travels extremely quickly across social media. The interconnectivity across continents has allowed eSports and gambling markets to flourish.

Although there was modest growth between the 1970s and the late 1990s, the internet turned eSports into a genuinely global business with the scope and potential to rival professional football, basketball, and NFL gambling markets.

Is It Realistic To Suspect eSports Will Take Over?

The idea that eSports gambling markets might one day surpass traditional professional sports gambling markets may seem like a farfetched idea. However, you only have to look at how it’s risen so dramatically since the mid-2000s and how it continues implementing some of the latest technological and financial creations to gain ground on traditional online gambling operators.

Although traditional online casinos and sportsbook companies have been able to set up a highly profitable blueprint and foundation, this market is becoming saturated, and herein lies the potential for further growth for eSports. Gambling providers offering professional video gaming markets consistently embrace new ways to play with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. By appealing to larger groups of younger investors and broadening the appeal to traditional gamblers who want to see what eSports have to offer, this is a multi-pronged approach to tapping into a core group that could unlock further billions to flow into the market.

Figures from the United Kingdom suggest that professional football (soccer), which is the biggest sports gambling market, is around 14 times the size of eSports gambling, so for them to be able to close this gap considerably, there will need to be constant innovation and momentum that puts eSports alongside the most significant sporting events in terms of viewing figures, but this is a positive trend that has managed to continue regardless of economic and societal downturns.

Final Thoughts

While it might seem premature to say this, and the eSports gambling market has a long way to go, all current measurements, analyses, and predictions point in the direction of the eSports gambling market continuing to grow. Another factor to consider is that a large group of eSports fans are under 30. So, as more people enter the market and older people who traditionally gamble on football and other sports exit, this will inevitably continue to spiral the numbers closer together. The internet brings gamblers together, whether through gambling or exploring ways to make professional video gaming your full-time vocation.

However, eSports is ultimately a niche market in global gambling. Professional football (soccer) has over 3 billion fans worldwide, surpassing any numbers that eSports has posted. Although the top tournaments command bigger viewing figures than the Superbowl and have prize pools that exceed $35 million, there is still a long way to go before the sector can be considered actual competition for these longstanding and well-established sports betting markets.

In 2050, gambling markets might be entirely digital, with land-based casinos or sportsbooks non-existent. Other sports may have risen to prominence within the next 25 years, too. It’s a long way off. One thing that seems inevitable is that eSports will continue to grow in size and take up a more significant chunk of the market, but the idea it’ll be the biggest is probably a bridge too far.