Emmanuel Thompson received his first gaming system when he was five and from that moment on, gaming has been a part of his life.
“I had the very first PlayStation and every single one since. Gaming has been the longest hobby I’ve had,” Thompson said.
Thompson always found entertainment in gaming, but as he grew older he was also aware that gaming wouldn’t pay the bills.
That is until COVID-19 gave Thompson a new opportunity to find a career in his favorite hobby.
“I had been making content on YouTube for a while, but it wasn’t until 2020 where I really began to take steps towards streaming,” Thompson said.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, Thompson was given more time to dive into his hobby since his place of employment had shut down. Thompson decided to use the extra time to try what he had seen hundreds of others doing during the pandemic.
“Once I was others doing it I figured I should try and capitalize on it and I began to stream more and more, and I eventually became a Twitch affiliate which just gave me more opportunity to make money while streaming,” Thompson said.
Thompson wasn’t the only one to join the world of esports as both casual and competitive gameplay increased in popularity during the pandemic but, just like its counterpart in sports, with the growth in esports came the addition of gambling in video games.
Internationally, the idea of esports gambling is nothing new but in the States, it is still a new development and its popularity is quickly rising.
Betting on the Pros
In 2019, online gambling, icasino, and sports betting were all legalized, but the idea of esports gambling flew under the radar until after the pandemic.
“We saw a large increase in the number of people betting on different esports events during and after the pandemic and we began to see large operators like DraftKings add esports gambling to their apps and websites,” said Carson Mundy, brand content manager of Gaming Today, a website with information on safe online betting that includes esports gambling.
Esports broadcasts increased in popularity during the pandemic because they did not require live viewership.The idea of gambling and live odds being placed on professional esports quickly rose as the more people began to watch the broadcasts.
Instead of just watching their favorite streamer on the biggest of stages, viewers could bet on or against them to try to make some money while watching.
While Thompson hasn’t competed in any of these sponsored events, he has enjoyed betting on some of his streaming icons, and he is curious to see how it will be moving forward.
“I think if moderated it will continue to be a fun addition to watching different esports events,” Thompson said.
Similar to sports betting, viewers can bet on a specific team or player to win a match or earn a certain amount of points. Viewers can also bet on certain statistics depending on what kind of video game is being played.
Unlike sports betting, only high-level tournaments, which are usually sponsored, get their own betting pages so it is not an everyday thing yet for viewers and gamblers.
Betting on yourself
While there are no big-scale tournaments for esports fans to wager on daily, there is a way for video game players to bet on themselves whenever they want.
In recent years, there has been an increase in video game wagering platforms like Players’ Lounge and Gaming Stars that allow players to bet on themselves and their performance in different video games.
Players who believe their skill is top-tier can try and earn some extra money by utilizing their skills in different games, ranging from sports video games like NBA 2K, Madden and Fifa to first-person shooter games like Call of Duty and Valorant.
The platform can only work for so many games, but for the ones mentioned players can choose from one of three play styles to wager on themselves to try and earn money.
The first of the three is a 1v1 match where players can bid themselves against another player. It is important to note that the other player does not have to be a bettor, instead the player would be betting against the house (the esports betting platform).
The player would wager a certain amount of money on themselves and if they win, depending on the platform, they would win a certain percentage of the money they wagered on themselves.
The second of the three is a point-style system where players before a match can try to predict how many points they can amount in a certain game. Similar to the 1v1 style users would be betting against the house and would earn a certain amount of their wager if they hit the point mark.
The most popular style of the self-betting wagering systems would be the tournament-style gameplay. Unlike the rest of the self-wagering play-styles, this one requires each person competing to be a bettor in a last-man-standing style of play.
While this is a common playstyle across multiplayer games nationwide, what separates this kind is that there is a minimum buy-in required from all players. The winner of the tournament is the only winner and they earn a pool of the buy-in.
Looking into the future
Online gambling has continued to be a growing market and it is now starting to draw an even finer line with video games. Certain regulations require personal information to be entered to confirm age when joining these online wagering platforms.
Even so, some experts believe that gambling around a market where there are a lot of younger ages involved can be risky.
“The amount of people I talk to daily is getting larger, and a lot of them are younger in recent years,” said Mike Burke, executive director at the Michigan Association on Problem Gambling.
“I understand that the esports market has grown, but with video game players being able to bet on themselves you worry that young age groups could get involved with it too early,” said Burke.
Thompson himself has yet to try wagering on himself as it is still too new to him but, he is interested to see if it can rise like other parts of the esports world have.
“I’m curious to see how the gambling goes, but I think the gaming industry has the ability to give people many different ways to make money whether from streaming, betting or participating in esports,” Thompson said.