E sports continues to be a fast-growing industry and one that is engaging millennials like never before. It has a highly developed ecosystem of organisations, players, game developers, hardware providers, media professionals and marketers. Viewership and prize pools are way above expectations. The esports industry has been growing for 15 years — but the last four have seen that growth explode.
Managing the leading esports betting websites has given Ultraplay a unique insight into the market. There are important distinctions between esports betting and regular sports betting. First, there is a completely new audience that needs to be examined further: millennials. This demographic is the primary entity in esports and requires a totally new approach in terms of communication and engagement. We rarely see cross-selling between esports and other sports — in fact, the latest data shows that many sportsbooks fail to address esports fans’ expectations, not only with coverage but also with on-site features, promotions, etc. Millennials want to experience the look and feel of esports and the classical sports betting view is not the way to go.
Second, risk management and trading is key for a successful esports betting product. In esports there are changes in the game rules and mechanics every few months. It’s vital, then, that traders have a deep understanding about the ins and outs of the game in order to stay on top. Although the entire esports betting sector is expanding, creating odds in esports is not an easy job and not everyone can claim to do it professionally. It takes a great deal of knowledge and experience to grasp the trends and transform them into a profitable business, not only because there are multiple variables (Dota 2, for example, has 500 in-game variables) but also because the dynamics are much bigger than in regular sports.
When Ultraplay first started covering esports, it took us 30-60 minutes to create a book on an event as there was so little information available. This meant we had to dig deeper in order to compile the odds. It was very challenging back then, especially since we didn’t have access to the wide range of statistical data and mathematical models we now offer. Now it only takes us about 10 minutes, including basic parameters such as probability of winning, total line and handicap. Everything else is generated through a mathematical model, just like in other sports such as football and basketball. Our esports betting solution is more than 80% automated, with the remainder carried out by UltraPlay’s experienced esports traders, who have 5,000-10,000 hours’ experience of analysing the games data and live performance.
Even though we rely heavily on automatisation and AI integration, traders are an integral part of the process for three main reasons. First, changes in the game are too common to make an adequate and fully automated esports betting model (many companies have done it and their results are rather weak).
Second, there is a lot of psychology in the game and often the end result is determined by subjective factors in players such as mistakes or tilting.
The third reason is traders’ ability to control the odds against three basic parameters: mathematically correct odds, bet settlement and market values (as opposed to when the model ignores nothing but mathematically correct odds).
Covering a broad number of games is a must. Even though the top three esports titles (CS:GO, Dota 2 and League of Legends) are responsible for more than 60% of betting volume, offering odds on a wide range of titles is vital as it creates a positive impression among potential bettors.
2018 was marked by the further expansion and improvement of UltraPlay’s esports betting product. We now offer pre-match and in-play betting and have made improvements to mobile betting to reflect players’ increasing preference for hand-held devices. By presenting our expanded portfolio of 25 game titles, including not only the golden trio of CS:GO, Dota 2 and League of Legends but many others such as King of Glory, NBA2K and Fortnite, we further increased the options available to esports fans and bettors alike.
Very much like in regular sports, live betting in esports makes up more than 60% of overall volume. Players will seek out the brands with the widest live betting offer and fastest functionalities to help them get the best in-play experience.
In the early days, in-play trading used to be an entirely manual, labour-intensive affair. It was a romantic period in live trading, one that saw the trader and his experience and knowledge tested to the full. Nowadays, live trading is almost entirely automated and thus much simpler to execute. Where once traders enjoyed top billing, these days they track irregularities and introduce certain metrics to help AI do the job better. It is a fact that, to this day, hand-held trading and esports traders’ expertise can beat every single model for live trading on esports.
Enhancements over the next few years will mostly focus on the live betting part of esports and its automation, as well as adding new markets and betting opportunities, while improving the models and their performance. With our determination to enhance the live betting model, those brands using Ultraplay’s products are definitely esports bettors’ favorites.
Last but not least comes the synergy that esports and crypto sectors are creating for the entire igaming industry where the number of bettors using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is increasing exponentially. The growth of bitcoin gambling has added new dimensions to betting and will continue to impact and upgrade the entire gambling industry.
PETER IVANOV is head of esports and sports trading at Ultraplay. Peter has solid expertise in setting up and developing the trading department, including pre-match and live trading, odds compilation and odds movement training. He also manages UltraPlay’s daily trading process.
COMPANY PROFILE
•NAME ULTRAPLAY •FOUNDED 2010 •SECTOR IGAMING, ESPORTS BETTING, BLOCKCHAIN •WEBSITEULTRAPLAY.CO•TWITTER@ULTRAPLAYLIVE