How does esports betting replace tennis and hockey?
Maksym YushytsynThe esports industry becomes more and more popular. An important factor is a high assessment of the development prospects by bookmakers, with which big money emerged in esports but big temptations for players appeared too.
Esports is still far from receiving a full recognition as a sport – the Olympic committee will probably never recognize esports as an Olympic discipline, which reminds the situation with motorsport, which has left aside from the Olympic Games. However, it didn’t stop car and bike races from becoming widely popular.
Bookmakers in esports: a benefit or an evil?
Bookmaker companies saw in esports a new branch, through which they can involve the cohort of video game fans who hadn’t been captured by them and who are mainly far from classical sports and, respectively, sports betting.
Previously, bets on Dota 2 and other esports disciplines were taken only by specialized Dota 2 betting websites, which didn’t differ with a professional approach to bets, now the most popular esports tournaments and CS:GO bets can be found in plain view on the line of all bookmaker companies.
Esports replaced hockey in terms of a number of bets in European bookmakers companies, the next one is tennis. One of the main bookmaker companies in the world, Pinnacle stated that esports might potentially hold the first place, having replaced even football.
But the arrival of bookmakers in esports has a dark side – as soon as bets with high limits were taken on esports competitions, people who wanted to make money on various fraudulent schemes on match fixing. Considering the line, which is provided by esports tournaments, bookmakers don’t need to organize a fixed result of a match and use the whole team in match fixing – it’s enough to guarantee a financial interest for a couple of players who lose one map or guarantee the success of some bet, which was made in a bookmaker company.
Match fixing and bets on fixed results are possible in bookmaker companies only where fees of esportsmen who take part in a match are not that big, so the temptation to take money for an organization of match fixing will not be so attractive as the risk of losing a reputation and an end of a career. Professional football players from the European top clubs will not even try to risk and participate in match fixing for a few thousands of dollars (and no one offers big fees for the participation in match fixing to sportsmen) and players from some amateur teams might agree on such an offer.
That’s why the main threat of the integrity of the game in football, tennis, and other sports is low-level tournaments where a third-party financial stimulation might be interesting for players with small salaries. Bookmakers are partly guilty of this situation because they are ready to receive money on everything that can be called a sport in a search for wealth. Young players are especially vulnerable who often don’t realize the threat, which they accept when they take part in match fixing.
How to fight match fixing in esports?
Esports is the branch where the players’ incomes are far from five figures, what is more, young people participate in competitions mainly who are a bit naive about such things as match fixing. The system of detection of suspicious matches has been working in football and tennis for a long time but there is chaos in terms of tournament organization in esports, besides, bets on esports are still taken by various websites, which have nothing common with bookmakers.
Esports is most popular in China, South Korea, and Southeast Asia but, actually, there is the biggest number of syndicates, which organize match fixing, and also Asian bookmaker companies, which provide the highest betting limits. It’s not surprising that the majority of big scandals at esports tournaments are related to Asian teams and players mainly.
The problem of match fixing in esports is not only about financial losses, which bookmakers have when there are bets on fixed results. First of all, viewers suffer from various frauds made by players and esports itself and its reputation. To save the integrity of the game is the mission of various organizations, which fight match fixing in esports. It’s clear that bookmakers are ready to help them as the side, which suffers from match fixing in financial terms.
What can be done to eradicate match fixing in esports? The first thing, which has already been done by organizers of competitions together with the police, is that they have punished a few esports stars demonstratively, having made these example disciplinary for other esportsmen. The loudest case is the permanent disqualification of the Korean Lee Seung Hyun who was fined 70 000 000 of Korean wons and received three years of a suspended sentence for participating in match fixing.
Another factor, which might take away the temptation to participate in match fixing, is solid fees at esports tournaments. Representatives of the best professional teams can make such a big money now that organizers of match fixing will not come to them and esportsmen will not have an idea to risk with their career for some quick income.
The third factor is the centralization of all tournaments and their union in one structure, which will be able to control everything in esports and set strict rules for everyone. Unfortunately, everyone who is related to esports can’t make a deal about the creation of such a structure and it doesn’t seem to be possible in the nearest future. The chaos in the world of esports helps various frauds to influence a fair sports struggle, which all fans of PC games want to see at tournaments.