E-sports are becoming a huge trend in the online gaming world. Over the course of the past few years, we have seen games like League of Legends gain huge popularity among millions of spectators around the world. Now, a new Melbourne-based venture will allow spectators to get in on the action by letting players bet on e-sports.
ESportGaming will launch on June 1, offering e-sports viewers the ability to wager on games like League of Legends, CounterStrike and Defense of the Ancients (DotA). The venture was created by 24-year-old Rob Dyche, who is a former DotA 2 champion. Touring the world, he witness first-hand the huge popularity of e-sports and realised that there is the potential for a very successful betting market. In 2014,
League of Legends tournaments saw 60 million viewers online. During its grand final, Seoul’s World Cup Stadium was full of 45 000 e-sports fans. Many of these spectators place wagers informally amongst themselves but they do not have an official outlet. So, Rob Dyche decided to offer one.
“I did a lot of freelance website development. Rob and I always wanted to do something on our own,’’ says Jesse Gill, co-founder of ESportsGaming. “We noticed that everywhere we went, people were betting between themselves informally. They weren’t doing it online.’’ This is the second e-sports betting service to launch in Australia. Last month, TabCorp teamed up with Unikrn to launch its own betting provider to e-sports fans.
The major difference between the two venues is that ESportsGaming is a parimutel betting pool while Unikorn is a fixed odds bookmaker. Additionally, ESportsGaming has not obtained a license to operate here, while Unikrn is able to due to TabCorp’s existing gambling license in Australia.