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Examining the Relationship Between eSports and Online Gambling

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The adoption of most sports within online gambling systems means travelling paths long since forged. Owing to the relatability of existing frameworks, creating new entries for the arrival of a traditional sport is usually a simple pursuit. ESports games buck this trend, with their digital nature creating the potential for unprecedented involvement and unique interconnectivity.

While these aspects of eSports are often fundamentally misunderstood or underestimated, a closer examination reveals how deep these relationships could run and how beneficial for the greater betting industry they could be. From bringing in newcomers to adopting new approaches in viewing, there is a lot of mapped and untapped potential in eSports for the iGaming world to cover.

Raw Numbers
One of the most immediately visible ways in which eSports aids the online betting industry comes from the vast inbuilt audience. According to an article at venturebeat.com, around 2.4 billion people played video games in 2019 alone. At the top of this spectrum are titles likes League of Legends and CS: GO, two popular eSports titles which boast around 115 million and 24 million monthly players respectively.

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The Ease of Integration
These numbers are important not just for how they illustrate engagement potential, but also in how eSports engagement relates to digital forms of viewing and gambling. For traditional sports like football or tennis, there is a strong reliance on more established methods of viewing. Most often, punters are relegated to watch only a limited selection of physical sports matches on television or digitally, if they have access.

Esports is very different in this regard, allowing practically every game and tournament, even in minor leagues, to be viewed worldwide over the internet, usually for free. Such a level of integration and mass adoption is not something that can be matched by traditional means, giving eSports a comparative leg-up on physical sports.

Many sports bettors find enormous appeal through cheering through each step of the game and, given the better access which eSports games offer, this provides enthusiasts not just with a way to enjoy their sport of choice but with several opportunities to engage with different brands. Both for eSports fans newly introduced to betting via online infrastructure and established bettors looking for something new, these digital choices are opening doors.

Such advantages don’t only apply to live games either, as the ability to watch replays is another area aided significantly by the digital nature of eSports. For an example of this, readers could look at the Overwatch League Replay Viewer available at playoverwatch.com. This program gives punters the ability to download completed matches and watch them at every possible angle, as they wish. With additions like slow motion, overlays, and other tools, serious gamblers who wish to more closely examine players and teams’ performance are gifted a rare opportunity.

The final advantage for online betting which bears mentioning is the ease of fitting eSports games legally within existing gambling websites and systems. As Legalbetting.com explores, legal online sports betting has been a widely accepted component of the industry for years. In the United States, for example, this kicked off in 2018 and, since this point, considerable work has gone into ensuring all aspects are safe for both the bettors and the bookies.

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Rather than requiring expensive and difficult to implement new laws, eSports have slotted into already developed sports betting services. Given just how important and strict the rules around legal online betting are, eSports games have begun their mainstream gambling life with advantages that many other sports took years to find.

As a spectator sport, eSports have accomplished astonishing success in the last two decades. From tournaments held in basements to finding showings on major international channels like ESPN, the world is now taking notice. As an industry with such a strong emphasis on sports and the digital both, online betting services are in a unique position to leverage eSports’ explosive growth. With both online casinos and eSports still far from reaching a plateau of popularity, this relationship is going to be one to watch.

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Flexion Reports Revenue Increase of 9% for 2024

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Flexion, the games marketing company, has announced that its revenue grew 9% to year-end December 2024. The growth is attributed to the Company’s success in the alternative app store market.

Since its IPO in 2018, the company has built a well-positioned games marketing business around the alternative stores and grown annual revenue 50-fold to almost US$100 million. Its game portfolio represents several billion US$ in gaming IP for alternative market partners like Samsung, Amazon, Huawei, OneStore and Xiaomi.

“With the Digital Markets Act (DMA) coming into force in Europe and recent legal actions in the US, mobile game developers have felt a new-found freedom to explore their market options. We’ve already moved beyond the era when Google and Apple controlled everything. Developers are looking for alternatives that offer better margins, and additional audiences and revenue. Partnering with Flexion opens up a range of market channels with very little up-front investment,” said Jens Lauritzson, CEO of Flexion.

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Flexion currently distributes more than 30 high-profile titles on the alternative stores. Top-tier games in the Flexion portfolio make on average US$ 10 million a year based on Q4 2024 run rate. That’s income in addition to their Google and Apple revenue with a business model that adds little to their costs.

In Q4 2024, Flexion-serviced games were, on average, generating 9.3% through the alternative stores of the revenue they made on Google Play. This is a significant boost for Flexion’s partners without major costs or effort.

“If you scale for the size of the stores, the alternatives massively out-performed Google in Q4 for our games. This is exciting both for Flexion’s business and for the future of the games industry as a whole. We’re seeing the beginning of a sea change in games marketing,” Jens said.

“We’re seeing just the beginnings of a major shift in how top-tier developers address their markets. Using Flexion to access alternative stores is an easy first step into the post- Google and Apple world. Many developers are already looking at their options beyond that and Flexion will be right there with them providing the technology and expertise they need to maximise the potential of their games,” Jens added.

The post Flexion Reports Revenue Increase of 9% for 2024 appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Players Reclaim Close to $7M Through AskGamblers Complaint Service in 2024

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The latest AskGamblers Complaint Service report for 2024 has officially been released. The comprehensive report highlights the most important accomplishments and records of the AskGamblers Complaint Service team for the previous year.

In 2024, The AGCS team (formerly known as AGCCS) managed to return $6,890,547.11 to players. Over 7259 players turn to AskGamblers, submitting complaints against 1114 casino brands. Out of all the accepted and processed complaints, the team had a 68% resolution success rate. One of the notable milestones that reached was returning a total of $70 million to the members.

Dijana Radunović, General Manager at AskGamblers, said: “It’s amazing to see the trust players put in us year after year, and we’re able to repay them by helping them recover their funds from operators or solve other related issues. We’ve had another successful year, with a few records broken and amazing milestones achieved and we can’t wait to see what lies in store in the years ahead.”

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SlotsCalendar Announces its Second Awards Edition at iGC Malaga 2025

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SlotsCalendar, a leading name and tastemaker in iGaming, has announced the second edition of the SlotsCalendar Awards. Winners will be announced during the iGC Malaga event in May 2025.

These awards are rapidly gaining significance in the iGaming world as SlotsCalendar’s steady growth, success, and player-centric mentality represent the community’s interest.

Players have approximately a month to vote between the 10th of April and the 12th of May.

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For its 2025 edition, the SlotsCalendar Awards Gala returns to the iGaming Club Conference in Malaga, happening on May 28th. The Awards categories for this year are as follows:

• Game Studio of the Year

• The Slot Everyone’s Talking About

• Star Slot in the Making

• Casino of the Year

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• Excellence in Bonus Variety

• Industry Standard in Responsible Gambling

• Live Casino of the Year

• Best Sports Betting Platform

• Best New Casino

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• Best Crypto Casino

While the idea of iGaming Awards is not new to the industry, the SlotsCalendar Awards are unique for a simple reason: winners are voted by players from the entire iGaming community.

The uniqueness of these awards makes them particularly important in iGaming. Placing the decision-making strictly in the hands of the player is a fundamental shift in the iGaming community.

SlotsCalendar CEO Viorel Stan said: “It’s truly an honor and a privilege to see how our SlotsCalendar Awards have evolved. Last year’s inaugural edition was a crowning achievement for us. It proved how vast and involved our community is, creating a level of engagement that made us incredibly proud. Being able to return to the iGC and reward some of iGaming’s luminaries in the name of the SlotsCalendar Community is beyond gratifying.”

The post SlotsCalendar Announces its Second Awards Edition at iGC Malaga 2025 appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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