Over the past ten or so years, esports has managed to grow from a relatively niche sub-culture to something that captures hundreds of millions of viewers across a number of different titles per event, and with the biggest streaming platform of Twitch for esports reporting over five billion hours of content watched per month on some of the bigger months, it has shown just how far esports and gaming have come. Recently, however, there has been a huge uptick in the number of traditional sporting fans making the change to esports for betting through some options at esportsbetting.site, but what has been the cause for the big change amongst many?

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The most impactful may have certainly been over the past year, with cancellations and postponements of big sporting events like the Euros and the Olympics and regular league play put on hold  toward the start and middle of 2020, it left many looking for something else to occupy some time, as online events continued for esports it seemed like an obvious choice. With a huge variety in games available and even familiarity with names like FIFA growing, it provided a perfect alternative in the short term, and had certainly led to developing passions which have helped them remain viewers in the long term too. 

For the betting side of things, it has certainly helped that there has been an uptick in bigger operators exploring this space too – prior to 2013, betting in esports wasn’t really yet a thing, and then one of the bigger titles introduced skin betting with in game cosmetic items, and further change led to a more recognizable esports betting scene that we see today – with markets being common and familiar alongside a huge number of betting stats the provide information of the last decade of games played, for many it was seen as untouched ground and became a bit of a haven for those looking for something new to pique their interest.

A huge benefit comes from the fact that all esports titles are free to watch, and often free to play too, which has not only helped their numbers increase over time for both players and viewership but has made betting much more accessible too – no need to be subscribed to certain sports channels to watch, and no big paywall behind any direct service either. Unique in that aspect, it provides the opportunity to watch the sport in a different way and will continue to be something that separates online gaming from traditional sporting, often with the hopes that sporting will follow and online streaming services will deliver in a different way, and cut down on the increasing costs if you’d like to catch every single one.