eSports betting is one of the mega-trends of the sports betting industry in the last few years – the other being mobile betting. With the explosive growth and massive popularity of eSports, betting on video gaming tournaments and competitions has become one of the best ways to engage with eSports or participate -somehow- in the broader industry.

Bettors will certainly find multiple relevant betting markets in bookmakers and gambling sites across the world, including those offering sport betting in Indonesia, particularly because eSports betting has come to be so interesting that it is impossible for bookies to overlook. In fact, building big, sophisticated sections for eSports betting seems the only sensible thing to do, considering how attractive these games are for punters.

eSports betting has grown both from and in parallel to conventional sports betting. Bettors generally tend to apply certain sports betting principles, formulas, tips and strategies to the world of eSports betting.

Naturally, some approaches and strategies will remain the same no matter the context where a sporting event takes place. A tight bankroll management strategy for example can be transferred from one market to another and punters can have the same approach regardless if they are wagering on a FIFA tournament or on a real Premier League feature.

Two things to consider in eSports betting

But due to some underlying differences between traditional sports and eSports, bettors will find it difficult to replicate all their strategies and approaches. And the basic reasons for this are the volatility of eSports and the virtual nature of the games. Let’s see both.

The Volatility of eSports

In order to understand how the volatility influences betting on eSports it is important first to have a look at what we mean by high volatility in the industry.

The rate of new entries in eSports is incredibly fast, unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. New games, new streamers as well as new teams (and of course new players) make their presence in a very speedy fashion compared to the traditional sports industry.

And just as they emerge quickly, they also vanish quickly or fade fast enough to give way to new entries. In such short life cycles of the eSports’ constituents, bettors can hardly ever gain actual knowledge over a team or a player, let’s say that will give them a prominent edge in the long run.

So, in a highly volatile market, betting becomes very challenging. Punters who follow certain favorite teams for instance, may well find that they are not so much of favorites any more even. The speed at which favorites change, new teams emerge, new players stand out on a constant basis is indeed shockingly fast.

And this means one thing for bettors: they need to be continuously updated, follow closely all the developments in the industry, carefully search for all the stats, available records and information on teams and players, watch out new comers and of course never lose an eye on what is going on in eSports.

Practically, eSports’ volatility means that bettors need to be alert all the time, much more than they need to be alert in traditional sports betting.

The virtual nature of eSports

When you want to bet on a football game, you will normally look for information that will give you some kind of an edge, like whether a player has been injured or what’s the form of certain footballers. Overall the physical condition of the athletes is one of the key ingredients of their performance and it makes sense to collect as much data as possible so as to make informed betting decisions.

When you want to bet on CS:GO, you will normally look for different things. Here things like the roster, the interaction between the players, the experience and the psychology play a much more significant role than the form and physical condition.

Everything happens in the virtual environment. All the action is getting inside the video game and therefore, bettors need to think differently when they choose about their wagers. They need to think about dynamics, relationships, interactions and culture of teams much more than they need to think about shape and form.