Consumer interest in esports as a form of entertainment continues to rise, and as such, it is beginning to pose a lucrative opportunity for the betting industry.
Speaking at the SBC Summit CIS, Esports Technologies Chief Marketing Officer Mark Thorne highlighted how new channels will need to be utilised in order for betting companies to connect with esports fans.
As the average viewer of esports tournaments typically come from younger demographics, they are less likely to see traditional forms of advertising such as television commercials, and so new digital platforms will need to be leveraged, Thorne detailed.
He said: “The esports customer is not necessarily somebody that’s already in the database of a traditional sportsbook, it’s a younger audience – it’s no good hammering them with TV adverts because they’re not watching TV, it’s no good doing newspaper adverts because they’re not reading newspapers, so you have to reach them using the new mediums that they are using to consume their sport of choice – in this case, esports.”
Commenting on the future of Esports Technologies, Thorne underscored the firm’s European ambitions as it looks to expand its reach outside of the US, where it has found considerable success as a Nasdaq-listed enterprise.
“It’s very easy to look at a company called Esports Technologies and see we are Nasdaq listed and just pigeonhole us into esports and the US – we are much more than that,” the CMO remarked.
“One of our major focuses right now is moving into regulated markets in Europe, and recent deals that we have done are exactly to help us along that road.”
He continued. “One of major aims for 2022 is really to release products that help these customers that are not sport punters right now really enhance their entertainment with esports by betting on it, but it has to be in a way that they understand, it has to be on their terms, and that’s where we are going to come in and help this transition.”