The Growth And Development of eSports Betting
The Rise Of eSports
The internet age not only brings us a wealth of information and more interconnected social bonds through media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, but it can also innovate and reinvigorate industries.
This is none more evident than the rise of eSports. eSports is the official title for competitive online gaming. It was a long road to becoming classified as a sport but now that it has been, it has opened up a whole new world of television deals, world class tournaments and online real money betting.
Humble Beginnings
eSports seem kind of inevitable when you look back at its beginnings. As soon as the computer sciences were implemented in universities people started developing game programs for them.
As early as 1972, Stanford University had organised a game tournament based on possibly the first ever video game called Space War. The grand prize was a year long subscription to Rolling Stone magazine.
It wasn’t until 1980 and the entrance of Atari into the videogame industry that a more official and commercial tournament was held for the game Space Invaders. More than 10 000 people competed for the grand prize, establishing the foundation for competitive gaming in the future.
Age Of Online Gaming
The next major step in eSports was the innovation and accessibility that online gaming brought to the fore.
Skipping ahead to the 2000’s, and the boom of eSports in South Korea, the sport began to grow in big way. This was due in part to improvements in Internet infrastructure and economic difficulties at the time. This was the catalyst that was needed to encourage other large gaming events to take place and these events are built on the backs of LAN parties that were very popular in the 90’s.
It was the natural next step in the eSports puzzle.
Move From Game To Sport
eSports Betting would not exist if the industry did not move from a hobby to a sport. The topic is still debated, but for all intents and purposes with regards to eSports Betting, it is a sport.
With huge tournaments like the eSports World Championships, the Electronic Sports League, the League of Legends World Championships and more, it is no surprise that the field is growing exponentially in both fans and competitors.
The eGaming Associations
Associations and leagues term their players professional gamers. This is because of the sponsorship deals that earn the team’s money, the huge tournament grand prizes and the full time nature of competitive eSports.
Some legendary teams currently operating in the sport include Evil Geniuses, SK Telecom, Team SoloMid and OpTic Gaming. International sporting bodies include the Korean eSport Association, the International eSports federation and the British eSports Federation.
What has also played a major role in the growth of the industry is the investment of popular sports personalities in eSports ventures like Shaquille O’Neal investing in the NRG eSports company and Rick Fox investing in Echo Fox. The future of eSports looks bright, and it’s certainly a genre that will grow, both for gamers and for those who bet on the results of the games.