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CalvinAyre - Full Story
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, it felt like the whole industry was waiting and wondering if esports would finally jump into the spotlight, and become the betting product the Sports Betting industry always has hoped it would be. But one of the most surprising takeaways I’ve had from the SBC Digital Summit has been the sudden rise of virtual sports as a prominent betting product,
As I’ve thought about it, it makes so much sense. Virtual sports can emulate all of our favorite sports, it doesn’t necessarily have to be tied to a schedule, and it needs minimal explanation to the betting public. But as most of the industry still waits on live sports to resume, I’m wondering if there might be something to virtual sports that operations should seek to expand, and make a much bigger betting product out of it long term.
The origins of virtual sports
To better understand virtuals, I googled up the origins of sportsbetting, which took me to virtualsportsbetting.com. These games have been around since atleast the early 1970s with Derby Day, the Sega developed arcade machine that would reward players for betting on one of three horses.
This idea was too good to keep in just arcades though, and by the 1980s, games like Sigma Derby had arrived in Las Vegas.
COVID-19 gives virtual sports a boost
I got that answer from atleast one operator at the SBC Digital Summit. Fabio Schiavolin, CEO of Snaitech, noted that his operation had seen betting on virtuals go from nearly nothing to over 100,000 bets per day since the beginning of the pandemic. When given the option between betting on esports options like DOTA, or a virtual football match, Italians went for the virtual football match.
As a football fan myself, and with not much knowledge of DOTA, that made a lot of sense to me. If you put both products in front of a traditional sports fan, they’ll probably bet on the one they already enjoy, rather than taking a risk on an esports team they hardly know.
This lesson kept coming up throughout the first two days of the summit. Other panelists commented that esports betting has decline in total volume, while it’s been virtual sports that’s taken up a significant share of betting. Golden Race’s Martin Wachter noted that his firm has seen a 200%+ increase in virtual Sports Betting activity in recent weeks.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, it felt like the whole industry was waiting and wondering if esports would finally jump into the spotlight, and become the betting product the Sports Betting industry always has hoped it would be. But one of the most surprising takeaways I’ve had from the SBC Digital Summit has been the sudden rise of virtual sports as a prominent betting product,
The origins of virtual sports
To better understand virtuals, I googled up the origins of sportsbetting, which took me to virtualsportsbetting.com. These games have been around since atleast the early 1970s with Derby Day, the Sega developed arcade machine that would reward players for betting on one of three horses.
This idea was too good to keep in just arcades though, and by the 1980s, games like Sigma Derby had arrived in Las Vegas.
COVID-19 gives virtual sports a boost
I got that answer from atleast one operator at the SBC Digital Summit. Fabio Schiavolin, CEO of Snaitech, noted that his operation had seen betting on virtuals go from nearly nothing to over 100,000 bets per day since the beginning of the pandemic. When given the option between betting on esports options like DOTA, or a virtual football match, Italians went for the virtual football match.
As a football fan myself, and with not much knowledge of DOTA, that made a lot of sense to me. If you put both products in front of a traditional sports fan, they’ll probably bet on the one they already enjoy, rather than taking a risk on an esports team they hardly know.
This lesson kept coming up throughout the first two days of the summit. Other panelists commented that esports betting has decline in total volume, while it’s been virtual sports that’s taken up a significant share of betting. Golden Race’s Martin Wachter noted that his firm has seen a 200%+ increase in virtual Sports Betting activity in recent weeks.
