There’s huge potential for the gaming industry regarding Esports, which is still nascent despite being a multi-billion-dollar industry, say a panel of experts. Driven mostly by live betting and focusing on an audience with a disposable income and betting propensity, consumers are no longer living in their parent’s basement – but are savvy consumers, with a need to structure marketing campaigns accordingly – particularly based on region.
Find some of the highlights below:
00:25 – Definition of Esports and presentation by Marek Suchar.
01:43 – Competitions are comparable to traditional sports, over 20k attendees in the venues that are hosting the events. Prize pools are often higher than $1 million. Viewership online is in the tens of millions.
02:28 – Expecting over $20 billion handle by 2028, Esports betting for many punters is already 5-10 percent of their betting volume.
04:10 – Insights into Esports fans – infographic
05:08 – Lead titles are CounterStrike, League of Legends and DOTA – for Asia it’s mostly League of Legends for China, DOTA for Southeast Asia.
07:06 – Unlike traditional sports, Esports players can actively play the same games as their idols.
10:00 – Panel discussion
12:10 – Need to have both a decent product and know how to communicate with your audience – if you don’t break that you will never see any profit from Esports.
13:36 – The Esports audience is about authenticity.
14:40 – Sponsors often enter the market and structure their marketing campaigns around the product and not around the consumer/gamer. Must also have data, need to do an audience analysis. But also need to know brand exposure (KPI) to justify your spend and campaigns.
16:36 – Vastly different approach depending on the title (game). Depends highly on the region and what the players are following is important. On the integrity side there are still challenges.
18:50 – Esports players tend to be more inclined to gambling and betting – due to the Skin-betting scheme and Loot Boxes.
20:05 – Esports’ future is to further distinguish between titles, instead of being referred to as a whole – much like Basketball, Soccer, Tennis. Heavily depends on which region you are targeting.
21:50 – Esports odds creation: much like marketing, odds creation varies from title to title (for example a shooting game versus a strategy game).
23:00 – More than 80 percent of betting happens live, while the game is being played. Unlike in traditional sports, who is winning or losing can completely reverse within 10 seconds.
25:00 – There’s tournament organizers, teams and agencies and sponsors. Around 70 percent of teams actually overvalue their sponsorship packages, this can result in disappointed sponsors.
Divide KPIs into two categories – audience analysis and brand exposure.
Golden KPI is the media value that was created during an event.
27:05 – Different sponsorship options. If the target is conversion into betting volume, can make a very different decision on how you’re sponsoring.
30:30 – Integrity is a key issue for gaming-related companies.
31:45 – One of the top three sponsors of Esports is betting companies, every major team has a betting sponsor. But there’s been a shift in perception on behalf of publishers.
33:45 – Transparency is crucial for building partnerships – it’s a two-way street.
