Marek Suchar, co-founder and Managing Director at Oddin.gg, outlines the exact nuances an operator must get right in order to have a successful esports betting offering. Suchar also outlines the spoils on offer for those operators who can successfully navigate this fast-growing vertical.

You wouldn’t build a stadium without solid foundations, lighting and seating. Yet many sportsbooks often treat esports like a half-finished venue—add a feed, hang a scoreboard, open the gates and hope the fans stay. And in a vertical where tournament quality and data reliability fluctuate far more than in traditional sports, even small mistakes can quickly become big problems. Bettors don’t return to a venue that feels incomplete—and they’re even less forgiving of one that feels unstable.

Esports isn’t a “future opportunity” anymore—it’s already reshaping sportsbook turnover today. For some operators, it’s the second or third biggest sport by handle. According to Oddin.gg data, betting volume across major titles grew by 106% year-on-year in 2024, while a sub-sample of 161,000+ esports bettors showed a 70% increase in activity across the same user pool. And this growth isn’t just about numbers—it reflects a new generation of bettor behaviour that sportsbooks can’t afford to overlook.

So how do you build an esports product with real foundations—one that keeps bettors coming back? It all starts with five pillars: data, odds, risk, user interface and markets. And the real difference comes from how those pillars connect—whether within a single ecosystem or alongside existing third-party solutions.

Why reliable data is the first step

In esports, missing data doesn’t just leave you uninformed—it shuts down markets in real time. Matches can run in every time zone, schedules shift with little notice and patches change the fundamentals overnight. Without accurate, official, or near-real-time data, operators are left with suspended markets and bettor churn.

This is why Oddin.gg partners directly with tournament organisers to secure official data APIs—the foundation of any serious esports product. But rights alone aren’t enough. Without the infrastructure to process, stabilise and deliver that data, exclusivity becomes just another cost. Oddin.gg has spent years building the pipelines, redundancy and monitoring systems needed to transform raw feeds into betting-ready products that operators can depend on.

The result is simple: markets stay open, exposure is manageable and the action bettors see is closely aligned with the bets they place.  That minimal delay is critical. It means bettors can follow the match in real time and place bets based on what’s actually happening on screen, rather than reacting to outdated information. It also ensures that enthusiastic viewers, not just active bettors, remain engaged—and potentially convert—because the experience feels live, responsive and trustworthy.

That’s the real value of data—not just access, but execution that keeps pace with the game itself.

Getting the odds right (and why bettors notice)

Esports bettors are often more informed than their counterparts in traditional sports. They understand momentum swings, map dynamics and champion picks—and they notice when odds fail to reflect what’s happening in-game. If prices don’t accurately reflect what’s happening in-game, sharp bettors exploit the gaps—and margins take the hit. Casual bettors, meanwhile, quickly lose trust in markets that feel off.

That’s why Oddin.gg developed proprietary models for esports from the ground up, rather than adjusting sports models to fit. The result: 93.4% margin efficiency in 2024 alone, proving that our pricing approach consistently converts margin into revenue across thousands of events. For operators, that means healthier margins, stronger retention and markets that bettors actually trust.

Turning esports volatility into manageable risk

Esports brings a set of risk challenges that traditional sports rarely encounter: sudden liquidity spikes during global tournaments, sharp bettors with deep game knowledge, unpredictable formats and evolving game patches that can change outcomes overnight. On top of that, integrity risks such as data inconsistencies or suspicious betting patterns call for constant vigilance.

Oddin.gg’s Risk Management is built for this reality. It blends advanced automation with expert human oversight to monitor betting activity in real time, flag irregular behaviour before it escalates and adapt pricing the moment in-game conditions change. Our team also maintains a continuously updated blacklist of suspicious teams and players and works closely with tournament organisers to identify potential threats before they impact markets.

This proactive approach does more than protect the sportsbook—it strengthens bettor confidence and keeps markets live without unnecessary limits. And because pricing and risk work in tandem within Oddin.gg’s ecosystem, partners have seen up to a +10% GGR uplift when our risk management tools run alongside the odds feed.

When a scoreboard isn’t enough

Scoreboards are yesterday’s tech. They show the score but miss the story—rotations in Counter-Strike 2 (CS2), gold swings in League of Legends, or momentum shifts in VALORANT. Bettors want a deeper layer of context to guide their decisions, not just the final result.

Oddin.gg addresses this with innovations like BetPeek. Built as an interactive layer of the live stream, Oddin.gg’s newest solution turns matches into fully betting-ready experiences, without disrupting how bettors watch. Features like map freedom, player POVs, x-ray vision and instant replays provide immediate insight into key moments and decision points—all without leaving the sportsbook environment.

This approach hasn’t existed in esports betting before. Traditional streams were never designed for betting and they leave bettors with limited information and missed moments. BetPeek closes that gap, creating a more immersive, decision-focused experience. It currently supports Counter-Strike 2, with additional titles already in development, paving the way for deeper integration across the most-watched esports titles.

The result is longer sessions, more informed betting activity and a product that feels genuinely built for esports, rather than a retrofitted approach from traditional sports.

Why market depth sets you apart

Basic esports products typically stop at “match winner” or “map winner.” That may bring turnover, but it doesn’t sustain engagement. Esports bettors are looking for depth: player props, round-by-round outcomes and markets that reflect the strategy and pace of the games they follow.

Oddin.gg delivers this depth at scale through eSimulators—head-to-head duels across eFootball (EA Sports FC 25), eBasketball (NBA 2K25), eCricket (Cricket 24), CS2, Dota 2 and more. These fast, always-on events extend engagement beyond standard tournament windows and keep activity consistent around the clock. Duels have shown up to a 15%+ crossover rate with main esports events, proving their ability to keep bettors active before, during and after tournaments. 

They’re also creating new ways to engage broader audiences. The Valkyrie Cup, the industry’s first fully female eFootball competition with its own distinct game mode, is part of this expanding portfolio—showing how diversity and variety can both attract new bettors and deepen loyalty among existing ones.

All of this sits within Oddin.gg’s wider 24/7 Fast Betting Content, giving operators a continuous stream of high-performing content that fills downtime and drives both volume and margin.

The missing piece: making it all work together

Even the strongest pillars fail without connection. Data, odds, risk, UI and markets must work in concert to deliver a stable and profitable product. Many suppliers can provide one or two elements, but that often leaves operators trying to stitch the rest together—often creating friction, delays and operational blind spots.

Oddin.gg was built to solve that problem. Its end-to-end esports ecosystem connects every layer of the product, ensuring they work seamlessly together out of the box. At the same time, each component is designed to be flexible—able to integrate into existing sportsbook technology stacks and complement other solutions already in place. That means operators don’t need to rebuild from the ground up to level up their esports offering.

This approach turns integration from a hurdle into an advantage. Whether deployed as a complete solution or as modular pieces within a broader setup, Oddin.gg makes sure every part works together—and that’s what transforms strong components into a scalable, profitable product.

Building it right

Esports is already proving profitable for early adopters, but the operators who will benefit most are those who treat it as a core vertical, not a side offering. And it’s not just for esports-native audiences. Solutions like eSimulators have shown how digital content can bridge the gap for bettors who might never have followed esports before. During the pandemic, for example, eBasketball and other head-to-head formats became the go-to choice for traditional sports fans—proving that when content is engaging and always on, audiences adapt.

That lesson still applies today. Whether you’re aiming to deepen engagement with existing esports bettors or bring new audiences into the fold, the foundations remain the same: data, odds, risk, UI and markets—working in sync to create a seamless product.

That’s exactly what Oddin.gg was built for. Every solution is designed to work together out of the box, but also to integrate with the systems you already have. Whether deployed as a complete ecosystem or as individual components within a larger setup, Oddin.gg gives operators the flexibility to scale esports in a way that fits their strategy. In an industry where execution separates experiments from long-term success, partnering with a team that’s already solved the hardest challenges is the smartest way forward.