Competitive sports have been around for decades, the first recognised football game was in 1863 in England when Rugby and Football both developed. The sports industry was valued at between $480-$620bn, according to an A.T Kearney study.

Esports has recently been booming, with plenty of opportunities in betting on games like WORLDS 2019 and The CS: GO Asia Championships. It comes after New Jersey accepted gambling on League of Legends Worlds 2019.

If you’re interested in Esports betting, check out EsportsJunkie’s best esports betting sites, with highly-detailed reviews off all the best betting sites. 

Esports is estimated to total over $1bn, with this figure rapidly growing.

Esports industry timeline

In October, 1972, the first e-sports event took place in Stamford College, where students played in the Spacewar video game. The recipient was awarded the Rolling Stones website a year-long subscription. It was not until 1980, though, that the first contest took place for video games.

10,000 people attended the Space Invaders Tournament and the press became widely used because Space Invaders (the tournament’s game) was a household name at the time.

Out of 3765 tournaments according to the esportsearnings.com site, the overall esport prize money given last year amounted to $110.6 million. A tournament’s biggest money pool? The Global 2017 is a record $24.6 million.

Sport is long overdue and will expand to meet the booming market for gaming. Revenues from esport are projected to reach $1.5 billion by 2020 and show no sign of slowering early. Just as people gather in overcrowded stadia for several decades to see a few competitors competing at the highest level, the appetite for exposure and entertainment in sport has been consistent over the years. Maybe everybody enjoys rivalry and a mighty glory. Have a strong 2018 in front of you!

Esports vs Sport Scholarships 

The significant point of comparison are scholarships. More than 50 colleges with varsity export programmes are now eligible in North America. Such programmes offer full or part-time contracts to identify high school students who are close to the top grades.

It is an ever-growing statistic and the highest spring of funds awarded so far in 2018. With more colleges taking part in collegiate sports and space rising, the figure is only going to continue to grow.

The NCAA is a black cloud that could potentially sit over the face of college sports. Until now, the often maligned governing body has not taken on athletics at the university level. They spoke about the industry’s weight, but in-game violence, Title IX problems and game publishers were their main concerns.

Insecurity is welcome for many people. Although in many schools the NCAA will automatically rocket sporting to a higher level, it would also be accessible at a cost. NCAA questions are close to those raised by the IOC, and they have a broad past of controversy and concerns about their credibility for the amateur athletes. However, the 15 million dollars in the sum of the 2018 traditional sport award grants for esports is less than one percent of the 2.9 billion dollars. Without a doubt, the presence of NCAA will propel the number even higher immediately.

Esports Betting vs Sports Betting

Both esports betting and sports betting are both lucrative, however, esports betting is new to the gambling scene.

Gambling on sports has been ongoing for hundreds of years and is very easy to do so. Betting on things like Dota 2 and League of Legends can be slightly more complicated if you’re wishing to bet outside the ‘Match winner’ option. 

Sports betting usually is based on Match Winner, however, esports betting has styles of betting like, Match Winner, First Baron or Dragon, First tower/inhibitor. 

It’s assumed that the betting section of the esports industry is valued at over $290m, while sports betting was valued a total of £20bn, assumed that this includes micro-markets like esports betting.

League of Legends Worlds Championships

The first World Championship League of Legends took place in Sweden in 2011. There was a $100,000 prize pool at the competition, with the top $50,000 in first-class winners Fnatic.

In 2012, there were 10,000 people in the Galen Center in Los Angeles, California, to witness the second LoL World Championships. Just one year ago, the facility was renamed to Staples Center when the final sessions were held before an audience. The top award was $1,000,000 in both these years.

The 2014 Seoul, South Korea championship took place. The Imagine Dragons participating in the event put together more than 40,000 people.

The LOL World Championships in 2016 brought an amazing 43 million spectators and at one point 14.7 million spectators. The 2017 case, which had more than 60 million participants, made these figures dwarfed. Estimates such as this neglect the total size of the two largest sports leagues, the MLB and the NBA championship games in the United States.