As gamblers shift spend away from the traditional betting areas due to the COVID-19 pandemic on live sports, 69% of survey respondents said that they had reduced spend, whilst 54% stopped spending on sports gambling altogether.
The survey took responses from 1,028 gamblers aged 18 to 64 and looked at how the current climate is affecting gambling in the UK, as well as the potential role that esports could play in becoming a new revenue driver for the industry.
The research also reveals a shifting interest towards other betting properties such as eSports, with 36% of gamblers having made a bet on competitive gaming in the last three months.
The study also found that 30% of consumers betting on eSports have only started to do so within the last month. Moreover, 22% of gamblers who have not tried betting on eSports before revealed that they will consider doing so within the next three months.
The forecast comes as the Nevada Gaming Control Board issued a notice of approval permitting sportsbooks to offer wagers on the Call of Duty League through 2020.
Licensed bookmakers may offer the following wager types: head to head, match winner, and overall winner.
With the Call of Duty League moving its operations online amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the Nevada Gaming Board has deemed that the esports competition can join Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, Dota 2, iRacing and Overwatch League (OWL) as available markets. All of those competitions were approved by Nevada regulators during the last few weeks.
For Activision Blizzard it comes as another boost, with the game developer having also signed off on a new partnership with Xfinity. The Comcast brand becomes OWL’s preferred internet service provider and presenting sponsor of the 2020 online season’s English-language feed in a two-year deal.
Source: GMB / SportsPro
