Sportsbooks and seizing the esports opportunity

As esports and esoccer move further into the mainstream, sportsbook operators have a growing opportunity to engage new audiences, smooth seasonal betting cycles and drive long-term customer value.

Over the course of the last several years esports have grown far beyond a niche to become a necessity in the sports betting ecosystem. As competitive gaming on titles ranging from League of Legends and DOTA 2 to CS2 and VALORANT attracts global audiences of millions and generates year-round interest, esports betting is becoming an increasingly valuable part of any future-proof acquisition and retention strategy.

For operators, the value in the esports business opportunity is anchored in multiple factors. Esports audiences are already vast and continue to expand, with fans filling stadiums across the globe for a chance to see their favourite teams and a new breed of sports star compete for supremacy and bragging rights. Engaging these fans with a compelling offer can expand and diversify an operator’s customer base, capturing new demographics and delivering greater share of wallet.

Esports events take place throughout the year and can maintain betting activity even during quieter periods in the traditional sporting calendar. For operators targeting enhanced engagement and widened revenue streams, investing in esports represents a potent opportunity.

Why esports is an important growth channel for sportsbook operators

A central aspect of the value that esports can deliver for sportsbook operators is the 24/7 nature of esports action. Titles such as League of Legends and CS2, as well as esoccer, feature events from January through to December, limiting the impact of calendar-driven fluctuations which are a hallmark of more traditional sports and leagues such as soccer and the NFL. This near continuous stream of content creates myriad betting opportunities for those sportsbooks capable of capitalising with a deep and quality offering.

This is complemented by the shorter nature of the contests themselves, which lend well to the more immediate nature of the modern sports betting landscape. A round of EAFC or CS2 can be completed in a matter of minutes, with bets placed and settled rapidly and thereby encouraging customers to reinvest their winnings.

As mentioned above, esports betting also represents a valuable means of engaging new audiences and demographics. Many of these bettors are digitally native and may not have engaged previously with traditional sports betting, and by engaging them with user journeys that can execute with depth, high combinability and exceptional uptime operators can build long-term relationships with these customers and generate increased lifetime value.

Adding esoccer into the sports betting mix

When discussing the potential of esports to deliver high-quality, always-on betting content it would be remiss not to expand on the soaring performance of esoccer on the Kambi network. By number of bets esoccer is now a top five sport, growing 335% between 2023 and 2025 and overtaking major leagues such as Italy’s Serie A and Spain’s La Liga. Taking place in the form of short, ten-minute matches, it is proving to be an important complement to the traditional calendar, with turnover spiking around low moments and gaps in major soccer leagues. 

The cross-sell potential and additional value generated is underlined by the fact that within soccer, esoccer bettors display consistently higher engagement than non-esoccer bettors, placing more than six times as many bets and generating approximately five times more gross gaming revenue.  

Notably, Kambi network data indicates that esoccer bettors belong to a different cohort to bettors who engage with other esports. For example, in Europe only 22% of those who bet on esoccer also bet on other esports, supporting esoccer’s position as a core betting vertical in its own right, appealing strongly to traditional soccer bettors. 

All these details and more can be found in Kambi’s recent esoccer report. 

Leveraging esports and selecting the right partner 

Appealing to today’s esports bettor and delivering a high-performance esports sportsbook requires a far more complex, deep and high-performance product than it did even at the turn of the 2020s.  

Combinability wields an extensive influence on the likelihood of an esports bettor being retained. The ability to drive their own experience and create their own betting stories is a cornerstone of modern customer expectations. Harnessing low-latency data in concert with a quality and accuracy of proprietary modelling can enable high-performance sportsbooks to offer this – not only on traditional esports markets such a map winner and total kills, but also an increasingly expansive range of player props.  

Furthermore, offering those customers who tend to bet on traditional sports the level of combinability and UX they are accustomed to when creating Bet Builder bets on esports boosts the prospect of retaining their interest in the esports product.  

Esports live betting is also a vital part of the product mix. Data from the Kambi network shows that nearly 60% of all esports bets are placed on in-play markets. With the fast-paced nature of esports events, impediments such as long live delays and frequent suspensions can have a severe negative impact on retention. It goes without saying that delivering a seamless experience and excellent market availability to millions of users is a huge undertaking at a technical level, and why sportsbooks lacking an esports focus can fall short of the required standards.  

Esports is no longer just an add-on – it requires a serious, considered product strategy. The potential of the opportunity for sportsbooks is clear, but so too is the technical challenge of executing against it successfully.  

For sports betting operators looking to unlock the full potential of esports, Kambi’s track record positions it as the ideal partner. Combining deep trading expertise and proprietary modelling with a proven ability to deliver high-performance in-play and pre-match experiences at scale, Kambi’s Turnkey Sportsbook and Odds Feed+ products provide the depth, reliability and innovation required to convert the esports opportunity into sustainable growth.