Rather than relying on your current playerbase to generate more revenue and secure the future of your business, which is not easy to do, what if you could attract a whole demographic of players to grow your business?

That’s exactly why a growing number of sportsbooks are turning to a new type of sport: esports. Not only is the industry growing, but it’s bringing a new group of players along with it.

Esports betting has risen in popularity exponentially in recent years, with the vertical ever popular with whole new type of bettors – both in age and in interests

Marek Suchar, co-founder and Managing Director of Oddin.gg, told SBC News that while the demographics of esports players vary, on average esports bettors are around 24 years old, which is significantly younger than the typical sports bettor.

“The younger demographic has implications on the lifetime value of the bettor,” said Suchar, speaking to SBC News from Oddin.gg’s stand at SBC Summit 2025. “If you look at baseball, it is said that all the data shows that the average viewer of baseball is 50 years plus, but if you compare that to esports, 24 is essentially a completely different demographic and a completely different lifetime value of the particular bettor.” 

While the older, traditional demographic may not be betting on esports like Counter-Strike 2, League of Legends, etc, fast-play eSims like eFootball and eBasketball are a great way to attract more bettors. 

“When it comes to eSims, the demographic is totally the same as with traditional sports, because in eFootball, your football fans are essentially betting on the same thing.”

How to interact with esports bettors

Merely knowing the demographic and offering bets on the latest professional FC26 tournament is not enough to truly win over these players, explained Suchar. Instead, you need to intrinsically understand the motivations and behaviours of esports bettors. 

One statistic that underlies this is that 80% of esports bets are done in-play, so operators need to have the technology and capabilities to offer such bets. 

“As a result, you can understand what might be the dynamics of the game when it comes to its length, when it comes to number of kills and who is going to win, etc,” Suchar noted. “You are essentially waiting for the comebacks and you’re cheering for your favourite team. But almost everything happens in-play.”

Bettors’ deep understanding of the games means that they’re looking for more betting options beyond the basic match results, and they want to be able to bet throughout the entire game. 

It wasn’t until very recently that multiple and complex markets were available for esports, Suchar explained. “When we started, it was usual to see an uptime of around 50% and below. Imagine in football that in the second half you could not bet at all. This is where the industry was for esports. 

“The younger generation wants to do everything instantly, but suddenly you have the case where the uptime is not there. You can bet on very few markets. The available markets were usually map winners or series winners. Oddin.gg started to change the industry in a way that you can bet almost all the time, and you can bet on multiple different markets.” 

He added that it simply isn’t enough for operators to just offer markets for esports; you also need to understand what drives the audience. 

“The industry didn’t capture the audience previously because the product was not good enough,” he said. “Second was that you need to speak the language of esports fans. Football, tennis or basketball style marketing wouldn’t cut it. 

“The generation is different; they are on Twitter, on YouTube. They are digitally savvy, so you need to go in their direction, you need to speak their language, you need to understand that GG means good game and all the other intricacies.”

Get it right, and operators can see multiple benefits. Not only can they attract a new type of bettor, but they can ensure that, with eSims, there is a constant stream of always-on content for sports fans to enjoy. 

Delivering the right solutions

As an expert esports odds betting provider, Oddin.gg can help operators tap into these player demographics and get in tune with the unique demands. 

The company offers odds feeds, risk management and eSims betting content available through its portfolio. 

That, Suchar said, stands Oddin.gg out from the crowd, as others don’t provide that level of opportunity. 

“There is nobody else like that. We process our own exclusive data, have our own odds feed because we have the models for that, we have the traders for that and we have our own risk management, both as a solution and as a team that is supporting that. Then we have the solution, such as iFrame, widgets, our own 24/7 content and also our own marketing services. 

“You can go to any of our competitors and you can have something from that scope, but we are the only ones that are able to provide you the entire suite. So whether you come for odds feed, or risk management or the iFrame, we can provide you all of that, and there is a big value out of that end-to-end solution, because we don’t rely on the third party.”

Oddin.gg is also expanding its capabilities to make watching and betting on esports even more engaging. One new development is BetPeek, which allows players to bet quickly within the stream of a game. 

Suchar explains: “BetPeek gives you the full flexibility to watch the game how you want to, and to quickly bet within the game. Historically, what you have seen was that you have a broadcast as an embedded video and on the side of it the opportunities to bet. Many times you had to decrease the video screen size to  be able to bet. With BetPeek we provide a seamless betting experience where you can simultaneously watch and bet, without ever leaving the video frame.”

Given that esports bettors are digitally savvy, they tend to also be crypto users. Statistics show that crypto bettors typically bet more on average than fiat bettors. 

“We have done some internal analysis and learnt that fiat bettors, on average, bet €5.70 per bet but crypto players will on average bet €9.50. There’s a huge difference in revenue if you can reach those crypto players.”

Ultimately, esports offers sportsbooks a viable option to diversify revenue streams and reach new players that traditional sports simply do not attract anymore.