[WATCH] COVID-19 leads to recent exponential Esports growth

Jessica Walker interviews Sebastian Läger and Martin Wachter on the Esports growth

Jessica Walker, SiGMA’s Head of Media Production, recently interviewed Sebastian Läger, founder of Twog Nation, and Martin Wachter. CEO of Golden Race. Both interviewees agreed that Esports and virtual sports betting saw a major increase in demand during the pandemic.

Martin Wachter who has been in the industry for 20 years said: “The pandemic had a positive effect and we got more clients online, the negative part is that we lost some clients in retail,” and added: “It’s a very good situation at the moment.” 

Martin further explained that the industry has already been growing fast for several years and Golden Race saw half a billion Euros in GGR just in Africa last year, where 90% of their tickets were in virtual soccer. 

Bookies Matrix, the research portal for the global online sports betting, in their recent study found 26 separate virtual game developers with their products on sports betting sites. Golden Race and Leap Gaming servicing had the highest proportion of tier 1 and 2 operators (based on market share within the operator’s jurisdiction. 

Sebastian explained that Esports growth has already been higher year on year but COVID accelerated the pace even more. Sebastian added that in these times of uncertainty “Esports became a safe heaven” and a bet that operators should take if they want to stand on more than one leg. Sebastian further explained that in March his inbox exploded from people who were interested to start their Esport business, but at the moment, with lockdowns in most countries a lot of people lost interest. 

According to Sebastian, the casual games as you see them on social platforms like Facebook these days can be seen as an “entry drug” for players to become interested in sports betting and almost everyone around the world owning is a smartphone is more or less a gamer, especially the younger generation. Sebastian added: “Everyone likes to play and to a certain extent we never lose our inner child.” 

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