As esports continues to thrive all over the world, traditional bookmakers are increasingly tempted to extend their offering to capture the millions of young adults tuning in.
In doing so, sportsbooks may begin to capture a new audience. But how can they adapt their offerings to also attract attention from their typical traditional sports customers?
Or perhaps a better question: Should sportsbooks be looking to cross-sell to their existing customers at all?
Esports as a form of entertainment is quite unlike traditional sports. An esports broadcast is not in any way looking to cater for the casual or new viewer. To understand what’s going on at all, you’d either need to consume a LOT of content, or actually play the game yourself. This is, of course, not the case for traditional sports.
That dynamic makes cross-selling esports products to non-esports fans a challenge, to say the least.
That’s not to say the task is impossible. As esports has grown and developed, plenty of traditional sports fans have found themselves embracing competitive video games as another form of entertainment. So much so that a number of sports teams and athletes have formed their own teams, tournaments, and brands for the space.
In order to appeal to “outsiders”, the focus must be placed on educating and informing this new audience. Very few bettors – and certainly even fewer casual bettors – will bet on something they don’t understand.
Providing a plethora of content (to educate) and data (to inform) goes a long way in persuading bettors to try a new product, but even so, without the additional educational avenue of that user actually playing the esport game themselves, it’s unlikely that they will be interested in wagering much on what is fundamentally an unfamiliar market.
Instead, traditional betting companies are best served accepting the reality that the esports betting market is big enough on its own to supply the demand needed to justify a unique product, with tailor-made offerings.
Not a hybrid, not a re-skin of their existing products, but a custom offering.
Cater to the audience you want and they will come to you. Your existing customers may just become esports fans of their own accord once they see the excitement! You’ll be ready and waiting with a leading product for them to enjoy.
