If you ask the average person on the street about competitive eSports, most will look at you bewildered or confused. If you tried to explain to them that how e-sports works as an industry with players, workers, sponsors and commerce, people would generally be dismissive. There is big business in competitive E-sports with the industry estimated to be worth $197 million. With an increased audience growth comes an increased opportunity for eSports betting. eSports is relatively new in the West, but has been popular in countries such as South Korea, China and Japan for a few decades.

 The rise of professional eSports teams.

Players and teams are rising to stardom and earning exceptionally from the prize money available from eSports tournaments. eSports earnings shares lists of earnings from the top eSports players. Some of the earnings are exceeding $1 million. Several professional teams have earned in excess of $2 million with the team ‘Evil Genesis’ topping the list at $11 million in earnings from 494 tournaments.

 ESports is more than just a hobby.

A report from Fortune Magazine gives more insight into the commercial growth of eSports. Game development companies that develop online multiplayer games seek to grow their audience. Each game that is sold to their core audience results in millions of dollars in income for the game development companies. Just to give you an idea, FIFA 16 earned $180 million in its first week of sales. This year also saw the sale of Minecraft for $2.5 billion to Microsoft. Starcraft, which has a large audience in South Korea sold 1 million units on its launch day with prices estimated at $20-30USD ($20 million + in revenue).

Additionally, there is more money to be made from merchandising, event ticket sales, prize pool contributions and corporate sponsorships as is shown in the image below.

 A vested interest from betting companies.

According to Darren Heiter from Forbes, billions of dollars will soon be wagered on eSports. Betting companies are seeking new ways to reach the millennials market and are eager to claim their first-mover market advantage as the value of the eSports betting market is expected to rise from $250 million in 2015 to $23 billion by 2020.

Senior consultant Chris Grove from Eilers Research was quoted saying “The numbers look big, but actually end up being pretty modest in the context of eSports audience/spend.”

 There is a lot of excitement ahead for eSports.

If you take a look at some of the big eSports gaming competitions that have taken place recently, you will find that events such as the Dota 2 (also known as The International) sold out to a crowd of 17,000 and the online attendance was estimated to be around 30 million. The audience is huge and it is quickly turning into an advertising goldmine for marketers. Coke Zero collaborated with Riot Games to associate the brand with the League of Legends game and audience. Furthermore, Nissan also worked on a collaboration to reach the millennial audience through League of Legends. And Red Bull has been embracing the emergence of eSports through Blizzard Entertainment’s Starcraft 2 and Dota 2.

 Increasing viewership.

According to a report from Superdata research, the worldwide eSports market has reached 134 million viewers. There is a tremendous rise in the audience size from people attending real-life tournaments and people watching or even participating in competitions. Furthermore, dedicated eSports gaming channels on television networks such as ESPN, Twitch TV and Youtube has expanded the audience reach of eSports gaming.

ESports will continue to rise in popularity in the coming years as millennials remain attached to gaming interests and will seek ways to get involved with gaming activities. As these millennials disposable income increases, we can expect more revenue and more interaction opportunities like eSports betting to emerge over the coming years.