EURO 2020 drives up interest in esports – report

A recently published report has suggested a strong link between traditional, live sporting events like the EURO 2020 and efootball

The EURO 2020 was one of the first?major sporting events?that took place after the COVID lockdown restrictions started winding down. You might expect the massive increase in popularity the esports saw to wane, but a recent report published by Newzoo suggests otherwise!

The report notes that the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship increased the total betting on efootball events. According to ESportsBattle analysts, players watching the EURO 2020 would prefer to visit gambling websites to check odds, bet, or cash out – up to 26% of them, in fact! They hit their highest number of people placing bets on football events in all of 2021, thanks in part to downtime before EURO 2020 matches.

Views and odds placing on football spiked between 6am to 12pm UTC, with the main reason being that punters still feel that connection with the game, and want to feel to be part of the process before the game even starts.

Seasonal play is the main difference between traditional football and its digital counterpart. It stands to reason that digital, online games can keep going all day, every day, up to and including changes to favorite players, great match-making for interesting play, and match formats to spice up the experience.

Without the traditional sports laying the groundwork and doing the heavy-lifting by popularising their sport, their online counterparts would not be where they are today. The strong correlation between the EURO 2020 and efootball proves this.

Esports rising

The expansion of esports doesn’t end at efootball. For years the industry has seen mind-blowing year on year growth, and as people get more and more comfortable with the internet this can only keep on its upward trajectory. Experts have suggested that global games’ live-streaming audience will reach 728.8 million this 2021 – this is a mouth-watering 10% growth compared to 2020.

This exponential growth could not be ignored by the gambling industry, and they acted accordingly. Operators began offering the option for players to bet on their favorite esports teams, even starting sportsbooks solely due to the increased potential for revenue. Some even went as far as to found esports-focused products! Of course, the fact that the COVID lockdown virtually eradicated every form of real-life sports only motivated them more.

If you’re into sports-betting news, check out this feature about Denise Coates, CEO of Bet365.

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