There has been a surge in the popularity of esports and competitive gaming worldwide in recent years, with Eastern Europe being a particular hotbed. We speak to Bartlomiej Michalek, Commercial Manager, UK & Europe at SIS, as he looks at how betting suppliers and operators can tap into this growing market.
In this ultra-competitive market for betting and gaming operators, there has never been a greater emphasis on providing a well-rounded and comprehensive, cross-vertical offering. The increased interest in gaming content and the engaged audience that it brings has presented an invaluable opportunity for suppliers to offer a new stream of compelling content.
In Eastern Europe, in particular, the potential around esports and competitive gaming betting is substantial. The statistics in the region are very impressive, with audience figures and revenues highlighting the popularity of gaming content. Estimations on the number of online gamers in Eastern Europe are roughly 3.5 million, with digital games revenue in the region growing by 7% year-on-year, generating over $2 billion each year. In addition, esports tournaments draw in impressive figures. Earlier this year, the Polish city of Katowice hosted the Intel Extreme Masters for the third time, recording just under 24million hours of watch time from start to finish.
With esports and competitive gaming disciplines having penetrated the mainstream in the region, we believe that sportsbooks should look to take advantage by drawing in casual bettors to events-based solutions. Our Competitive Gaming portfolio features two well-recognised sports simulations – esoccer and ebasketball – that are generating significant results for operators, with sportsbooks reporting that these products are contributing as much as 10% to total revenues.
