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E-sports, Online Games and Gambling — What You Need to Know

It’s a great time for online gamers. From exciting e-sport opportunities, to online games and gambling, there’s a multitude of experiences for players to enjoy — and even profit from.

But there’s big differences between each. E-sports involve huge tournaments or game competitions; online games, like Call of Duty, for example, can be played on game consoles. Online gambling is where games traditionally found in a casino can be played.

Here’s how it all works.

E-sports vs Online Gambling

On October 19th, 1972 in Los Altos, California the first ever video game tournament was held. An event put together by Rolling Stones writer and editor Stewart Brand – and photographed by the renowned Annie Leibovitz – the Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics was a significant moment in gaming history. The rocketship duelling game was featured by Brand – credited as a ‘sports reporter’ – in a 9,000-word article and described the players as athletes. Celebrating their skill during the “pulse-pounding spectacle” in Los Altos.

Spacewar was the first game to be played competitively, tournament-style — but it certainly wouldn’t be the last. E-sports is close to becoming a billion-dollar industry; it is now estimated that the global esports market will surpass $1.6 billon USD by 2021.

Jack Etienne, owner of Cloud9 – one of the world’s most valuable esports team – described 2018 as the year esports began growing in popularity in the mainstream marketplace.

2018 certainly was a big year for e-sports. A total of 9 esports teams worldwide were estimated to be worth more than $100 million that year, while Etienne’s Cloud9 were valued at $310 million — after securing $50 million in Series B funding. Between high profile sports players and moguls, as well as some of the world’s top investors and entrepreneurs e-sports has gained a lot of interest — and a lot of cash — in the past few years.

The same month that Cloud9 secured its funding, basketball icon Michael Jordan joined the ownership team for Team Liquid — a Netherlands-based professional esports team. In 2017, the owner of the New England Patriots, Robert Kraft paid $20 million to own the Boston team of Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch League.

“We have been exploring the esports market for a number of years and have been waiting for the right opportunity to enter,” he said. “The incredible global success of Overwatch since its launch, coupled with the League’s meticulous focus on a structure and strategy that clearly represents the future of e-sports made this the obvious entry point for the Kraft group.”

The rising interest in esports from more traditional sports-related investors and players makes sense; professional gaming has many similarities to professional sports, with fan-favourite teams and players and live audiences. The biggest championships worldwide are currently The International Dota 2 Championships and the League of Legends World Championships; prize winnings from championships are one of the main sources income for professional esports players — some of whom earn millions of dollars a year from the industry.

The growing potential for profit from e-sports is perhaps what causes its comparison to online gambling. Like e-sports, online gambling can be lucrative — especially in games like poker, which unlike other online gambling games, requires both skill and luck. Just as with e-sports, talented players make a living from playing poker, and both careers can be lucrative, although incredibly difficult to master. Different poker games suit different types of players, and the same can be said of e-sports players – while some specialise in sports games, other thrive in shoot ‘em ups.

The Importance of Consoles

Where regular online gaming and e-sports share similarities is in the games that are played and their use of consoles. Unlike online gambling, where games are regularly played on mobile devices, online gaming and e-sports are played on computers or game consoles, the most popular of which include the PlayStation, X-Box and Nintendo series.

Video game consoles, which are sold from large-scale companies like Microsoft and Sony, have become almost as common as TVs; in 2018, almost 162 million people in the US – roughly half the country’s population – owned video game consoles. The PlayStation 4, one of the best-selling consoles in the world, has sold 88.06 million copies since its release in November 2013, with sales continuing to go strong.

The success of consoles – and online gaming in general – has been due, in large part, to the popularity of certain games. Games like God of War, FIFA 18 and the Call of Duty series have all had highly-anticipated releases.

It’s when online gamers move from their at-home consoles into tournaments that they become professionals; a growing marketplace in an exciting entertainment space.

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