“As more sporting events get cancelled or forced to run in private with limited live audiences, the virus wreaks havoc on sports fans and sports betting fans alike. While some events manage to push through, many are not so lucky. The silver lining can be found in recent figures reported by ESL that show a +24% increase in audience for the Esports Pro League during the ongoing shutdown.” – explains Dan Gibas of EsportsConstruct.
Esports emerged from online tournaments held for digital audiences exclusively at first and only in recent years paved its way into the brick-and-mortar arenas. Esports keeps on running.
Rooted in Germany but with a diverse team based around the world, EsportsConstruct offers a complete out of the box solution for adding a dedicated esports product channel to any sports betting or casino operation as quick and simple as a Casino API integration. The solution is a service with attractive and configurable margins, either fully managed or giving your bored sports trading division a new challenge.
What is happening to the Esports market right now during the current COVID-19 situation and what opportunities are there?
“More people than ever before are stuck in their homes playing games and watching Netflix. This forced adjustment in the entertainment industry is an opportunity for operators who want to position themselves where the markets are moving.”
“Further stimulus can still come from operators. I would reach out to traditional sports teams and players that we work with and invite them to play in Esports tournaments and possibly involve some charities. Computer games are fun and games can be played at home or at venues that are safer and have limited or no audiences. All these tournaments and endorsements will help to grow Esports even more during the COVID-19 period.”
What options are there to get up and running with EsportsConstruct?
“We invite operators to integrate directly with us for the best possible customizations and commercials but if you want to get up and running even faster – you can enable our product using an API integration you may already have in place with a platform provider. Ask your platform providers if they have already integrated with us today or message us via [email protected]. Both integration options get you the same level of excellent customer experience in esports betting, they differ in time-to-market and flexibility though.”
What if we don’t offer Esports betting?
“At this time, if you don’t have Esports as a channel – you need to make a move now before you miss the chance because it’s taking off with or without you. We can help guide you and provide training on the product’s operation as part of our on-boarding process. You also get the ongoing support of an account manager, just like you normally do. “
And if you already have Esports betting?
“If you already have Esports as part of your main sports betting product then you have to section it off to become its own dedicated product – only then will your esports audience growth will unleash its full potential. EsportsConstruct specializes in a seamless user experience fully branded with the rest of your site.”
And finally how about Casino?
“I keep emphasising to our Casino customers: esports is a fantastic cross-sell to the computer gamers demographic. These are the customers you already try to appeal to with a huge number of casino slot games. What I experienced in my work with operators is that RNG based casino games performance can hit a peak and start to flat-line in the market. When this happens, you must look for ways to leverage opportunities to increase the customer deposits from your existing customer base. New channels and product verticals are the way to achieve this and esports is your best bet in 2020.”
Speaking of investment, what is an operator looking at in terms of investment to enable EsportsConstruct’s betting product?
“We have put in significant financial investment and years of work into building the best in market product for our partner operator based out in Asia. During the live time with 188BET we have run many A/B tests and updated the product constantly based on both BI data and customer feedback – so R&D and real world testing have been done. This investment culminated in the new B2B enabled product which is now fully independent of 188BET and available to operators openly worldwide. The cost to an operator? Around 2 to 6 weeks of your development resources time for a direct integration and far less if enabled via a 3rd party platform we are already partnered with. We work on a typical tiered revenue share model. ”
