Is esports and esports betting popular in Latin America? In which LatAm markets is it most prevalent?
Esports has been on an upward growth trajectory in LatAm over the last couple of years, both in terms of the number of professional athletes, teams, and tournaments, as well as the number of consumers engaging in esports activity, including esports betting. Esports has seamlessly integrated into the region’s gaming culture, fostering a dedicated community of fans and bettors. This passion for esports is rooted in Latin America’s long-standing enthusiasm for traditional sports, especially football. Brazil is the biggest LatAm market for esports – according to Statista, the country had more than 1,360 active competition athletes in 2023, followed by Argentina (471) and Mexico (447). Brazil also leads the way in gamer audiences, with over 70 million game players and 80% of video gamers saying they know esports. In terms of the esports betting market, analysts estimate esports betting revenue in South America to reach $134.2m by the end of this year, with an annual growth rate of 6.33% between now and 2029. This makes for a significant opportunity for sportsbooks to explore.
Which disciplines are the most popular in particular? Why is this the case?
All disciplines in high demand worldwide also attract gamers and esports fans in Latin America. Popular titles in the region include CS2, League of Legends, Dota 2, Call of Duty, and FIFA. These disciplines have large fan bases across the globe. Even local League of Legends tournaments can attract thousands of viewers across streaming channels like Twitch. Regarding our products, we’ve observed high demand for our ESportsBattle tournaments, which feature eFootball, eBasketball, CS2, and eHockey—titles that strongly appeal to traditional sports fans in Latin America. We’ve seen this first-hand, particularly in Brazil, where there’s incredible demand for our esports tournaments that offer 24/7 fast betting action. Bettors can access over 35,000 monthly events, with up to 50 markets per event.
Why should operators in LatAm offer esports betting to their bettors? What acquisition and retention opportunities does it provide?
Given the huge popularity of esports across the region, bettors are looking to wager not just on traditional sports but on esports, too. It must be remembered that demographics in LatAm countries often skew younger than in other regions, with a large percentage of the bettor base falling into the Millennial and Gen Z cohorts – Gen Z alone accounts for 25% of the population across the entire region. While these bettors do engage with traditional sports betting, they also want to wager on esports athletes, teams, matches, and tournaments.
Even when wagering on traditional sports, consumers prefer fast betting experiences and wish to wager round the clock, so operators must provide betting action 24/7/365. This is what we offer via our proprietary ESportsBattle tournaments and our traditional sports betting content, including Setka Cup table tennis and BSKT Cup. If sportsbooks don’t provide this content, they won’t be able to acquire and retain bettors at the scale required for their business to succeed.
There are other upsides to offering fast betting content, too. It works incredibly well on mobile, which is essential in regions like LatAm, where smartphones dominate. Because the dwell time is lower on mobile, bettors want betting experiences that last seconds not minutes. As a result, they can have multiple bets in play across different games simultaneously, with quick bet settlements and instant payouts. Fast betting content also helps operators stand out from their rivals, which is important in a highly competitive field. The diversity and ever-changing markets that come with fast betting allow for more variety and bettor choice, ultimately leading to a better experience.
What does a compelling esports betting offering look like?
Esports betting is compelling by its very nature. Compared to traditional sports, it offers more unpredictable results, lots of in-game action, a huge variety of events, and round-the clock betting opportunities. The fact that more international tournaments, such as the PUBG Mobile Super League—Americas, are now being held in Brazil further enhances the betting experience for bettors in the region.
Esports betting also helps sportsbooks fill the gaps in their offerings when no traditional sports action occurs. For example, our ESportsBattle tournaments (with live streaming, real time data, and odds) offer over 35,000 monthly events with an average margin of 7.5%+. In addition, operators in the region can also leverage our comprehensive esports odds feed, powered by official data, for more than 450 international tournaments covering 40,000 pre match and live events a year for popular titles like CS2, Dota 2, League of Legends, Valorant, etc.
Fairness is a crucial consideration for operators, so our products are underpinned by constant 24/7 monitoring via a dedicated Integrity team. Their work in this area means that just 0.02% of matches have been flagged as suspicious for the last 12 months, and this has helped to build incredible trust between our content, our partners, and their bettors.
How can sportsbooks localize their esports betting proposition in each LatAm target market?
Ultimately, it comes down to offering markets on the esports contests that players want to wager on. This is why our ESportsBattle tournaments and Global Esports content are broad in terms of coverage, allowing operators to pick and choose disciplines based on what is popular in the market or markets they target. Of course, sportsbooks can then run marketing campaigns and promotions around our esports and fast betting content tailored to each market’s culture and player preferences. We frequently see operators leverage collaboration with influencers, one of the most effective ways to promote their products and build trust with bettors.
How important is data in esports betting? How can operators ensure they provide reliable odds for tournaments to their bettors?
Reliable and accurate data is essential in the betting industry. To provide valuable odds, sportsbooks must use the best data available, which for us means accessing official data. Given the need for localization, having access to local tournament data is also crucial. This is something we have prioritized by partnering with official data providers such as GRID, which offers advanced widgets that display real-time stats.
Our extended partnership with GRID has enabled us to launch these visualization tools as part of our esports odds offering, featuring tools like the Map Winner Prediction Tracker, Series Scoreboard, LiveLog, and others. Additionally,customizable data such as win rates, damage per round, and first five kills, among many more, helps bettors make more informed decisions.
Accessing official data also enables us to continue to enhance our product and the experience we offer to bettors. PlayerProps are hugely popular among esports bettors but again, official data is a must to be able to build an accurate, reliable product that operators can use to offer this type of wager to their players. This is something our team did with the launch of Dynamic Duels for Dota 2 international tournaments a while ago.
For the first 10-15 minutes of the map, when the teams have already picked characters and started playing, bettors have a unique opportunity to bet on a range of markets with odds that can change instantly.
They can track and analyze the in-game situation and how the balance of power between the teams and athletes changes depending on which athletes participate in the duels. This, in turn, keeps the bettor engaged not only in the game but also with the sportsbook, ultimately increasing bet volume and revenue.
The article was originally published in iGaming Gazette.
