Everything about eSports is getting bigger and bigger: how marketing, viewership, and betting are growing alongside the growth of competitive video gaming

eSports is now considered to be the new frontier in the gaming industry, where competitive video gaming meets the rules and the organizations that are seen in the traditional sports industry and where viewership has the potential to grow bigger and reach global audiences that are still untapped. eSports are growing not only as a minor sports segment. They are not just another type of sport that is hyped and is getting worldwide attention.

The prospects and opportunities associated with eSports are expected to fundamentally change the worlds of sports viewership, entertainment, marketing, and betting as well.

With particular regard to betting, it is now a mere reality that eSports are getting more and more space in the websites of bookmakers offering sports betting in Germany or in any other place in this world. If you take a tour around platforms offering online wagering, just like the trusted, popular betibet, you’ll see for yourself that eSports are no longer in the shadows. They are upfront, and heavily promoted, and on top of these, there is usually a long list of markets - including basic betting markets, props, special bets, outright or live bets - aiming at satisfying even the most demanding punters.

In a similar way, eSports are thriving in terms of viewership. Tournaments and competitions are no longer taking place in arcades, but in huge arenas which can accommodate thousands of viewers simultaneously.

With highly popular games such as Fortnite, Call of Duty, CS:GO, DOTA 2, League of Legends and FIFA, tournaments get to be organized in stadiums that feature capacities like those that are designated for the most popular conventional sports, like football or basketball.

And this is only a part of the bigger picture. Attendance to eSports competitive events is a small fraction of viewership taking place online. The streamlined audiences are spread all across the world and they are growing at rates that are really hard to grasp.

Just like eSports is getting bigger in regards to sports betting and viewership, it is also getting bigger and more important from a marketing perspective. Becoming one of the leading ways of entertainment for the younger generations, eSports now constitute the holy grail for brands and marketing managers.

The audience of eSports is typically made of tech-savvy, considerably wealthy, young males and females who are always ‘connected’ and who have been born and bred in the era of social media. What’s a better demographic for marketers than this? The thing is that the audience of eSports is a promising audience for many brands and so, eSports has become a strategic marketing channel, able to deliver marketers’ communication and branding objectives.

Sponsorships, advertisements, produce placements and brand endorsements are very common now in eSports and they are costing corporations millions and millions of dollars. Getting a brand associated with a favorite game, a highly anticipated tournament or competition, a very popular eSports event, a specific team or even a particular player is all companies can hope for in reaching more effectively and efficiently their target audiences.

Multibillion agreements have taken place in the context of brand sponsorships in eSports. And this is expected to continue to grow in the near future, as eSports are getting more into the hearts and likes of fans.

But as analysts explain, the future is even more promising with anything that has to do with eSports and that’s because a large part of gamers has not yet been identified and tapped as audiences. With nearly 3 billion gamers today and only 500 million fans of eSports, you can easily guess that there is a tremendous number of eSports potential target markets awaiting to be targeted by brands!

Everything around eSports is getting extraordinary hype. And the positive thing is that this is not expected to deflate any time soon. On the contrary, everything around eSports is anticipated to get bigger and bigger, up until eSports becomes the dominant entertainment for young people all over the world.