More People Are Placing Bets on E-Sports than on Golf
NBC News has a story centered around how the rise in popularity of e-sports has led to a rise in gambling on e-sports. Writer Keith Wagstaff talks to people from Pinnacle Sports, one of the premiere online gambling sites around. And in 2014, e-sports were the eight most popular subset to bet on, beating out golf.
According to the article:
Since 2011, the year when Pinnacle began accepting bets on e-sports, the volume of trades placed on video game matches has doubled every year, Hudson said. The company has hired a team of eight e-sports traders responsible for setting lines and wagers.
This was, of course, inevitable. We humans never met a contest we didn’t like to wager on. And while side bets and friendly wagers go hand-in-hand with competition, the rise in both popularity and purse of video game tournaments is undoubtedly going to bring along its share of side action. With over 350,000 e-sports bets placed on Pinnacle alone in 2014, it appears the gamblers have officially gotten their dirty little fingers in e-sports.
(Header image via Piotr Drabik)
David G. Temple is the Managing Editor of TechGraphs and a contributor to FanGraphs, NotGraphs and The Hardball Times. He hosts the award-eligible podcast Stealing Home. Dayn Perry once called him a "Bible Made of Lasers." Follow him on Twitter @davidgtemple.
I doubt that the headline is actually the case, though I’d be prepared to be proven wrong. British website, Oddschecker, which compares odds from 23 listed bookmakers, currently only has one firm offering prices on tonight’s battle between ‘Cloud 9 Hyper X’ and ‘Denial’ – though I hasten to add I have no idea which e-sport they are competing in! Meanwhile, just two of the same firms are NOT providing odds on what I would consider a very minor women’s golf tournament, the Lorena Ochoa Invitational.
I should add that Pinnacle is not one of the firms listed on Oddschecker, but all of the main players over here (Ladbrokes, William Hill, Coral, Betfred etc) are. Perhaps the fact that Pinnacle, and the Oddschecker-listed Bet365, are among the few who do take bets on e-sports means that anyone who does wish to wager on the same is forced to give them their business, thus skewing the figures that apparently make this their eighth most popular ‘sport.’
Hockey is an amazing game to watch, and what can be more exciting than to make some money on the other side by placing bets on this sport. For all the hockey fans, placing bets on specific team can be the best way to rake in some much needed winning cash. You should choose the team carefully, learn to manage your bankroll and also make proper use of news and information resources.