Esports betting has seen a massive boom in recent months, with some incredible numbers coming from a ... [+]
The UK Gambling Commission has released a new report that shows the incredible growth that esports betting has seen over recent months thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, with the year-on-year increase jumping a massive 2992%.
The report, which takes a look at the impact the pandemic has had on UK gambling operators, revealed the gross gambling yield for each different sector of the industry, with esports listed as one of the categories. The numbers show that while other sectors of the gambling industry have struggled during the pandemic, esports betting has risen significantly.
In March 2019 the gross gambling yield for esports betting was just £50,223 ($63,493). 12 months later in March 2020, when the pandemic was just taking a hold in Europe, that had risen to £1,517,548 ($1,918,541). In April 2020 that then rose further to £3,393,637 ($4,289,767), and increased yet again in May 2020 to £4,616,610 ($5,835,764).
The year-on-year increase from March 2019 to March 2020 was a rise of 2922%, showing that even before the pandemic took hold, esports betting in the UK was a rapidly expanding market. Even then, the increase from March 2020 to April 2020 was still a massive 124% increase in a single month, showing how popular esports betting while traditional sporting events were unable to take place.
Other sectors that do not rely on live events also saw increases, with poker up 50% year on year and 66% from March 2020 to April 2020, but that is still small scale compared to the incredible rise by esports betting in the same time period.
As expected real event betting was down significantly, with a 62% decrease in gross gambling yield from March 2020 to April 2020.
The pandemic has done wonders for esports betting, with specialist operators such as Luckbox experiencing significant growth on their platforms. The past few months have been so successful for Luckbox that the company is now looking to go public on the TSX Venture Exchange later this year.
The real test for esports gambling will be the next few months, as operators will be looking to retain those who have made the switch to virtual sports during the pandemic. With some sporting events starting up once again there is bound to be some kind of drop in these numbers, but if a good portion of the gamblers can be retained then the esports betting industry will be in very good shape coming out of the pandemic.
