The global appetite for esports betting is growing considerably according to DATA.BET, a prominent sportsbook solutions developer with a focus on the space.

DATA.BET has already predicted that convergence between gaming and betting audiences will continue in 2026, largely driven by demand for esports – the firm’s latest datasets are likely giving it further confidence of this.

Statistics released by the company show an uptick in player activity during Q1 2026, at least on DATA.BET’s platform, with placed bets increasing 33.2% and combo bets up 72.1%.

The Cyprus-based company has interpreted this as a sign that users are shifting ‘toward more sophisticated betting behaviour’, though it has also cited the increase in combo bets to changes to its UX, namely its Single Page Application iFrame.

“High margin efficiency has been a real catalyst this quarter,” said Bohdan Holovnov, Head of Esports at DATA.BET.

“Partners have increasingly recognised that esports can deliver meaningful commercial returns, encouraging them to scale up promotional campaigns and drive more traffic into the vertical. 

“That feeds directly into more new users, higher turnover, and stronger margins. At the same time, we continue to offer the broadest match and discipline coverage on the market, and the impact is also reflected in the rapid growth of combo bets across our partner platforms.”

Traditional bookmakers across the world are, understandably, preparing for the World Cup.

This might not be the case with its esports counterpart, however, with DATA.BET citing Rocket League as the ‘most promising esports discipline for betting’ – beating the FIFAe World Cup, which the firm admitted is ‘typically the year’s headline event’.

Rocket League saw quarter-over-quarter turnover growth of 85.3%, alongside a 18.7% increase in bet coins and a 50.1% increase in active players. The firm has also highlighted its 94% live coverage conversion rate. 

Lastly, DATA.BET also found that top-tier events are outperforming low-tier events ‘by a wide margin’ in terms of turnover, profit and bet count, but the volume of lowtier events has continued to grow, particularly CS2.