The esports industry’s potential is becoming impossible to ignore, and as those in the know tell iNTERGAMINGi, synergies with the gambling industry are scaling up at a similar pace
The esports industry has been on the rise for a long time – its growth accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic – but there is a sense that the sector’s best years are just beginning.
The last few years have seen esports receive recognition from the International Olympic Committee, with the 2026 Asian Games to host 11 medal events. In 2027, meanwhile, the inaugural Olympic Esports Games will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Knitting those landmark moments together has been the Esports World Cup. After 2024’s debut tournament in Riyadh, the prize money on offer in this year’s edition increased by US$10m to $70m.
The sports betting sector has moved in lockstep with esports, with suppliers and operators keen to tap into betting markets, audience demographics and ability to fill gaps in sporting schedules that the industry brings with it.
PROOF OF CONCEPT
“The appeal is clear; esports runs 24/7 and the gameplay is familiar to users, which makes it highly engaging,” says Shivam Shorewala, the CEO of esports data and solutions provider Rimble.
Shorewala notes the company is seeing “strong adoption” in esports betting of more complex bet types such as same-game parlays. What’s more, esports is already the fourth-biggest sport for North American betting handle at Rimble behind American football, basketball and baseball. Among the factors driving the uplift in esports betting, Shorewala says, is the different kind of bettor the industry attracts compared to traditional sports.
“These users tend to be more engaged and open to trying different markets,” he explains. “We are seeing a growing number of them come in through esports and then explore other offerings across the sportsbook.
“This becomes even more valuable during the summer months when traditional sports slow down. Esports fills that gap with consistent content and helps drive retention.”
Also among the companies servicing the esports betting sector in Sports Information Services (SIS), through its Competitive Gaming division. SIS’ esports betting arm offers standalone ebasketball and esoccer events around the clock, as well as tournament-based H2H Global Gaming League (H2HGGL).
“With SIS Competitive Gaming, we set out to deliver a product that complements the real-life equivalent as much as possible – with instantly recognisable players and teams – while also being short in length for a rapid turnover of matches,” says Harry Heynes, SIS’ head of new business.
“Our ebasketball and esoccer products are designed to sit on the basketball and soccer tabs of a sportsbook, respectively, and we have found that operators who have taken this step have experienced major success.”
SII has increased the number of Competitive Gaming events to 225,000 per year, with 10 concurrent streams for the H2HGGL.
“The 24/7 nature of the product means we can serve operators and their players with compelling short-form content regardless of what time zone they are in, with integrity always at the heart of an end-to-end proposition.”
Success for operators in esports betting also comes in margins, something Betbazar has looked to home in on.
“Our esports content is specifically selected to deliver stable margins through a dedicated trading team, improved mathematical models and access to official esports data,” says the company’s chief operating officer Max Sevostianov.
Betbazar offers 24/7 esports betting content on titles such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), Dota2 and League of Legends (LoL), as well as console games such as FIFA and NBA2K. “The high-frequency format ensures strong player engagement and steady betting volume,” Sevostianov says. “Combined with real-time data, proper trading and flexible margin templates, this content delivers consistent profitability and strong performance across global markets.”
NEW TO THE GAME
Despite more and more companies moving into the esports betting space, there is always room for new entrants. Abelson Sports, which has been providing odds and data solutions to the betting industry since 2003, moved into the esports betting space in September 2024 through a deal with Rimble.
“It wasn’t necessarily a conscious decision to move into esports,” begins Abelson’s chief betting officer, Jeeve Jeyaratnam. “By repurposing our Football Player Markets pipeline, we have effectively invited other suppliers to benefit from the scope and reach that our integration provides, bypassing lengthy development roadmaps.
“Rimble is one such beneficiary of our third-party partners project, which now sees us being able to offer its esports and cricket player props. There’s no doubt the relationship has opened doors on both sides, and we are proud to be associated with a business as well run and smart as Rimble.”
From Rimble’s perspective, CEO Shorewala says Abelson shares the same “niche focus” on delivering “strong, prop-based” markets in alternative sports like esports and cricket.
The partnership has also allowed Rimble to target markets outside of North America, as well as access tier-one operators.
“One of the biggest wins has been the efficiency gains on the operator side,” Shorewala says. “Instead of having to manage multiple integrations of deal with inconsistent content formats, they now get everything through a single, unified feed. That kind of standardisation leads to fewer issues and a much smoother experience overall.”
Shorewala reports “encouraging” early signs from the Abelson partnership, including interest from Abelson’s existing clients as well as new prospects on both sides.
“We believe we have already won a few new clients together. What makes this partnership unique is that our content and theirs complement each other really well. We are both focused on building the best prop-based offering, which gives operators something stronger than what they could get separately.”
Abelson and Rimble are therefore exploring an expansion of their collaboration into esoccer and other content areas.
Abelson is not “actively looking” for any more esports partnerships as it stands, but Jeyaratnam says the company remains willing to listen to potential options.
Rimble, meanwhile, is finalising more partnerships in the space having built out micro-markets and cashout features in partnership with rightsholders and their data.
“We are also expanding into competitive gaming titles like NBA2K and FIFA,” Shorewala says. “These are especially valuable because they offer a sports-like experience that is easy for users to understand. At the same time, they give operators round-the-clock content that fits into their broader offering.
“What sets our product apart is how customisable and stable it is. Operators can offer hundreds of esports markets with full confidence. Everything is unified through our bet builder, so pricing is accurate and the user experience is consistent. Unlike some providers who rely on spreadsheets or patchwork data, our solution is proven, automated and ready to scale”.
FAMILIARITY IS KEY
For SIS’ Heynes, ease of integration – and simplifying the move from sports betting to esports betting – is key.
“We have found that a benefit of SIS Competitive Gaming for operators is ease of integration, compared to other rival products,” he says. “It has been designed to mirror the structure of other SIS verticals like racing, making the integration process familiar.
“We also have a dedicated team focused solely on helping new partners get up and running quickly, which makes a huge difference, especially when operators are juggling multiple priorities.”
SIS can also work alongside operators’ existing integrations with partners such as Genius Sports, Heynes says, in a process that takes, on average, between two and eight weeks. “This quick and commercially effective launch is a significant advantage in today’s market, where speed to launch and immediate performance are crucial.
“We understand the need to keep up with real-life sports betting, which is why we try to collaborate on our features roadmap with as many customers as possible. The evolution of the product is drive by our customer needs and the more we can work alongside operators, the more we can build a stronger offering that will benefit both parties.”
In aiming to advance its esports betting solutions, Sevostianov says Betbazar has put the spotlight on real-time performance analytics and customising content packages based on regional player preferences. “This enables our partners to offer localised, high-conversion esports options 24/7. We’ve also focused on streamlining API integration and optimising the UX to help operators onboard and launch esports betting faster than ever.”
ESPORTS BETTING CHALLENGES
There is clearly an appetite from gambling operators to bring esports betting into the mix – and no shortage of motivation from suppliers to service that demand.
However, esports remains a fragmented industry in some ways – and far from established in the same vein as traditional sports.
For the betting industry, Shorewala believes that operators need to be more expansive in the markets they offer to consumers. He says many brands do not offer player props, bet builders or “the kind of markets that users actually care about” – which he believes is “holding the whole category back.”
Slow and inconsistent pricing is a pivotal factor in making bet builders ineffective, Shorewala notes.
“We are also seeing a shift in user expectations. Esports fans want more interactive betting options. They tend to be more willing to explore new bet types and take more risks. If the experience is built right, there is a real opportunity to engage them in ways that traditional content sometimes cannot.”
Shorewala says Rimble’s models are “fully automated” and can flag risk and adjust dynamically, “giving operators the confidence to offer a deeper set of markets.”
“We also built the platform to have full parity with traditional sports. That was a core design choice. If you want users to treat esports like they do NBA or soccer, you need to offer the same level of depth and reliability.
“That includes automated risk and liquidity management, and models that understand when something is likely to be risky or based on incomplete information.”
For Betbazar’s Sevostianov, integrity, match-fixing and “fragmented and reliable” data are standout issues in esports.
“Regulatory uncertainty also limits expansion in some markets, though progress is being made as more jurisdictions recognise and adapt to the esports landscape,” he states.
“Additionally, educating bettors and simplifying the user experience are critical, as many players are unfamiliar with esports formats. Despite these hurdles, the industry matures quickly, with innovation and collaboration driving long-term stability and growth.”
At SIS, integrity is a major focus, with the company having partnered with the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) for its Gold Standards. “A lack of trust that an esports contest is being played out correctly is corrosive for everyone in the betting industry”, says Heynes.
“As a supplier, a challenge we regularly face in different territories is different regulatory frameworks and requirements when it comes to the esports categroy. It takes up a lot of resources to focus on these complex and evolving landscapes. We also recommend our newly launched customers to either visit or take a virtual tour of our studio facilities in Milton Keynes. This gives our partners a real understanding of how important integrity is to SIS and the measures we take to ensure it is always at the highest possible standard.”
INTEGRITY CHALLENGES
Integrity remains a defining issue for esports as the sector matures, says Abelson Sports’ chief betting officer Jeeve Jeyaratnam.
One recent notable case, which concluded in July this year, involved match-fixing. The ESports Integrity Commission (ESIC) banned StarCraft II competitor Xue “Firefly” Tao for life, with Jinhui “Jim” Cao handed a provisional suspension. ESIC found that the two players operated a “coordinated match-fixing and profit-sharing scheme,” with Xue deliberately manipulating match outcomes to benefit illicit betting activity organised by Jinhui.
The investigation uncovered that pre-match wagers predicting Firefly’s losses – often by “precise scorelines” – were placed by Jinhui. The report on the case added that “consistent match losses” by Firefly aligned with those wagers across seven tournaments.
“It’s impossible to talk about challengers without mentioning integrity,” Jeyaratnam says. “Though, I’d argue that is not unexpected for a new sport undergoing a period of sustained growth. Esports isn’t shielded from nefarious characters, bus as it matures, it it learning how to combat such issues.”
Jeyaratnam notes that while organisations such as ESIC and the Global Esports Federation are looking to improve all areas of the sport, the lack of a central regulatory pillar is something that needs addressing. It means that, at times, self-governance by game studios such as Riot Games, the publisher of League of Legends and Valorant, is essential. However, he says that such companies have futures staked on “professional and clean” competitions. There is “no bigger incentive” than that for better regulation, Jeyaratnam argues.
THE NEXT CHAPTER
Alongside tackling the challenges involved with esports, there is still a need to push the industry forward. More high-profile tournaments, enhanced prize money and stronger regulatory structure will all help. From the betting perspective, though, Abelson’s Jeyaratnam says Riot Games’ recent statement, in which it warmed to the idea of sponsorship of esports teams by gambling companies, presents a “fascinating and potentially lucrative” opportunity.
Riot Games, the creator of League of Legends and Valorant, is opening up the betting sponsorship category for top LoL and Valorant teams in the Americas and EMEA.
“We know sports betting isn’t for everyone, and that some fans have strong feelings about it, and we respect that. However, the reality is that betting activity already exists around our sports and will continue whether we engage with it or not,” says Riot Games’ John Needham, president of publishing and esports.
Although, Riot Games is taking a “guardrails first” approach, which would include vetting all operator partners and mandating operators to use data provider Grid to power their offerings.
Jeyaratnam says installing Grid as the official data source will offer a “trusted, single source of truth. Esports, given the speed of play and difficulty in tracking actions, requires a strong data collector and in Grid that has been established.”
Elsewhere, Riot said the arrival of betting sponsorships in esports will create more revenue opportunities – and will provide a revenue stream for grassroots esports.
The statement “adds confidence to predictions that esports will continue to evolve and strengthen as a sport and as a betting prospect,” Jeyaratnam says. “Esports betting won’t go away, regardless of whether Riot or anyone else recognises it, so it’s better to accept its presence and work to control the narrative.”
USER EXPERIENCE CHANGES
For Rimble chief executive Shorewala, there will be a paradigm shift in the way consumers interact with esports betting content.
There is a “clear shift” towards same-game parlays and micro-markets, he says, the source of which is a desire from bettors to “build their own stories” within a match.
“That means the platform has to give them the tools and confidence to do it without friction.”
The other defining pillar of esports betting’s expansion for Shorewala is in the content, which he notes attracts new types of users who are familiar with the games but might not be traditional sports bettors. From there, he argues there is a clear crossover opportunity – and one that must be scaled up.
“Once they’re in, they often explore other parts of the product,” Shorewala says. “For the industry, esports is starting to move from a niche to a core offering. More operators are looking at esports not as a side vertical but as a consistent handle driver with real potential. The next step is giving it the same treatment as other major sprots. That means parity in pricing, bet builder support, risk and liquidity tools and user experience. We already build our product with that standard in mind, and we think the market will keep moving in that direction.”
There is a strong growth trajectory for esports betting, concludes SIS’ Heynes. “It is about creating the right proposition for both, and there are suppliers in the industry doing exactly that. Our focus at the moment is on ebasketball and escoccer – sports everyone knows, which have helped us build a strong foundation. But we are a global business, and we know that different regions have different preferences, so naturally, we will continue to review different content types that could help us further expand our reach.”
