- In an interview with the Esports Insider, Tomas Ericsson, Abios’ vice president of odds, spoke about esports betting
- The COVID-19 devastation opened numerous new opportunities for esports betting and the industry skyrocketed
- Esports betting still faces some setbacks but that’s where companies like Abios come in to provide a solution
Tomas Ericsson, VP of odds at Abios, has spoken about the recent growth of esports betting, its potential and the challenges it currently faces.
Ericsson Speaks About Esports Betting’s Growth
The COVID-19 pandemic hit the world hard. The dreadful virus forced many industries to go into a dormant state. Traditional sports got the worst of it as many globally-popular events had to be canceled. Yet, despite all the hurdles, esports continued to flourish.
Admittedly, esports wasn’t unscathed by the events but the ability to switch to an online format worked wonders for the industry. Event organizers and leagues soon adapted to the “new normal” and things continued as usual.
Not only that, but in the absence of traditional sporting events, many sports betting companies turned their gazes towards esports. The Esports Insider esports news outlet spoke with the subscription-based esports data company Abios on the matter.
Tomas Ericsson, Abios’ vice president of odds, spoke on how Electronic Arts’ FIFA series proved to be a worthy substitute of traditional football to bettors.
“The popularity of FIFA peaked during the pandemic when it acted as a filler-product for the thinning sports calendar. Although it doesn’t see the same level of growth post-pandemic, we still see strong demand for a betting product for FIFA,” Ericsson explained.
As the popularity of FIFA betting has grown, so have the bets.
“With its high pace, FIFA is well suited for an engaging live betting experience and attracts players with an interest in esports, as well as players with interest in traditional sports,” Ericsson said.
His company had to recently expand its FIFA data services in the wake of increased customer demand. Abios added live and pregame data for tiers one to three FIFA events.
Ericsson believes that Esports has tremendous engaging potential since it’s easy to follow, has а great variety of games and events and is constantly evolving. In fact, esports betting has grown so much that the market tech is struggling to keep up with the demand,
“Our hypothesis is that the esports community has a higher demand on the quality of betting products and that there is a huge untapped market within this community,” Ericsson pointed out.
Abios’ aim is to keep up with the dynamic environment and continue providing the best esports betting data on the market.
Esports Betting’s Advantages and Setbacks
Speaking about Abios’ data and solutions, the company is giving its all to maintain the quality of its data feeds but it also tried to engage fans in more than one way. Bet builders and cash-out are just some of the solutions that help to ensure prime customer experience and retention.
A great edge that FIFA has over its traditional sports counterpart, is that data can be easily collected and the quality is oftentimes much more robust. Currently, traditional football games need much more manpower to collect the same data that esports can collect automatically, directly from a game’s servers.
“Data is the life-blood of high-quality sports betting services as it enables a completely automated flow,” Ericsson pointed out.
He added that Abios’ proprietary solutions for integrating with a game server provide data feeds with low latency, high resolution and high accuracy.
For all of its advantages, however, esports betting still meets some of the problems that traditional betting has. Keeping the integrity of esports betting and having it being compliant with local regulations isn’t so different from what online sports betting is facing.
Because of this, esports has one great problem – barring minors from placing bets. Since esports are very popular among young people, this may prove to be one of the big problems esports betting needs to solve.
Abios is already working on this, as it recently launched a solution that helps sportsbooks stay compliant with player age requirements.
“Abios helps clients stay compliant by providing information on player ages and birthdays in order for sportsbooks to be able to keep their markets open with confidence,” Ericsson mentioned.
Match-fixing, cheating and other fraud can also harm the esports betting ecosystem. Certain games have had excessive amounts of all of these things both in the casual and in the competitive scene.
High-tier events usually maintain a robust level of integrity but even so, working on minimizing fraud is one of the great challenges esports betting is facing. Abios and other similar brands will have an important role in solving all those issues.
In conclusion, despite its setbacks, esports betting continues to emerge as a highly successful form of entertainment. As demand grows, so will quality. Even traditional sports organizations have recognized the importance of esports in contemporary media and have launched their own esports leagues and teams.
