With Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak stating thatcasinos in the state would remain closed indefinitely on Tuesday, Nevada GamingControl has issued permissions to sportsbooks to begin accepting esports wagerson three new events.
More Esports Competitions Added to Wager on in Nevada
Nevada Gaming Control continuesto add more esports events to bet on after the regulator approved betting on Counter-Strike,Dota 2, and eNASCARlast week. On Tuesday, April 14, the Nevada Gaming Controlexpanded this list with a number of key events that generate millions ofhours watched on popular video sharing and streaming platforms as Twitchand YouTube.
The updated list of events will now include the OverwatchLeague, League of Legends European Championship and the NorthAmerica League of Legends Championship.
Esports events have a big demographic and geographicfootprint with teams from all over North America and Europe participatingin these electronic sports competitions, and therefore exciting their fairshare of interest.
Indefinite Casino Closure, More Offbeat Sports Betting
While Nevada Gaming Control has been previouslyopposed to introducing esports, as they have a “different risk profile,” NevadaGovernor Steve Sisolak warnings that casinos in the Silver State, Nevada’sprinciple source of income, willremain closed indefinitely, have given the regulatory an incentive to seekan alternative to traditional sports betting.
Gov. Sisolak specified that easing the restrictionswill be considered based on lodi777 medical opinion rather than economicfactors, forcing local sportsbooks to adapt. With professional sports on atemporary suspension, William Hill U.S. has already reported increase in otheractivities, such as table tennis and pingpong.
WH director of trading Nick Bogdanovich spoketo ESPN saying that there has been a significant increase in pingpong as well. Some300,000 people applied for unemployment benefits last week in the state.
Major Leagues Shift to Soccer
With the professional sports on hold, there have beena big shift towards esports. The NBA 2K Player Tournament and theregular NBA 2K season have been a qualified success, although the PlayerTournament was associated with a gambling scandal.
Meanwhile, eNASCAR viewership pulled a steady 1.3million people watching the simulated race, revealing the competition’simmense potential. Now, MajorLeague Soccer seems bullish about the value its planned esports tournamentwould bring in.
Exciting viewership for esports based traditionalsports has proven difficult, however. The peak viewers for the eMLSLeague Series reached 46,000 people during the first event in Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, the NBA 2K Player Tournament hit only 327,000viewers, even though the event had much more prominent starsthan NASCAR, which completely obliterated all other esports based onsports.
In this context, the eMLS Tournament Special will takeplace on Sunday, April 19, but no official approval has beengiven by Nevada Gaming Control to wager on this event. One of the concerns hasbeen to not create the illusion that traditional sports and esports share thesame risk profile.
With realistic competitions such as FIFA 20, bettorscould be misled by the way camera angles replicate what you see in both a real gameof soccer as well as in the simulation. However, the players in the game do notnecessarily correspond to their actual skill in the real world, as they arecontrolled by gamers.
