e-Sports betting raises concerns as it evolves

In recent year, we’ve seen e-Sports become a staple product for any serious sports book operator. And who can blame them, in 2018 the market share was around £717 Million, with a forecast to reach £1,3 Billion in 2020.

With that kind of money up for grabs, any operator that has the resources is going to jump on the chance to take its share. For now, there are only a handful of casinos that are investing in e-Sports, Rizk Casino being one of them. However, with all this revenue floating around, concerns surrounding match-fixing come to question. But, are there any indications to confirm this?

All eyes on the players

The truth is, some media outlets seem to have an old way of seeing the rise of e-sports. In fact, they call out the business model for lacking a well-organised infrastructure. They believe it could entice cheating and match-fixing. But, nothing could be further from the truth.

ESL e-Sports betting raises concerns as it evolvesIt doesn’t take much research to find out that e-sports has a safety net in place to combat these concerns. Addressing this is Marcel Menge, Senior Vice President at Play and Platforms at the Electronic Sports League (ESL).

He believes that having multiple spectators and judges backstage, plus having the point of view (POV) streams online for each player, are enough eyes on all situations to ensure everything is up to par and fair. Plus, he reminded the press that 25% of ESL budget’s goes towards anti-cheat measures.

Operators unite

To have a functional and evolving e-sports product, you need to have a watchdog to keep it fair. And one of these organisations is the e-sports Integrity Coalition (ESIC).
In essence, ESIC focuses on identifying a uniformed disciplinary procedure, code of conduct, and how to identify potential threats. Although e-sports might be relatively young, the foundations are rock solid. Especially with organisations like ESIC and ESL joining the ranks. So it’s safe to say that the evolution of e-sports is going to be closely watched by millions of fans and supporters.