How Pinnacle Increased Their Esports Coverage and Saved Time

When Pinnacle accepted their first esports bet in 2010, they were the first bookmaker to enter esports. Today, esports is one of their biggest markets and Pinnacle is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading esports betting operators.
"Accuracy is the key, and in our experience, GameScorekeeper has the most accurate data on the market"
Olavi Kuosmanen
INDUSTRY
 

Betting

 
EMPLOYEES
 

350+

_____________

RESULTS
 
  • Boosted revenue through broader product offering
  • Eliminated work hours scheduling and resulting
  • Improved customer satisfaction through decreased time on payback

Generating Profit With Esports

Unlike many other bookmakers, Pinnacle allows winners. While most bookmakers restrict or ban successful players in order to limit potential losses and maximise profit, Pinnacle welcomes everyone no matter how much or how often they win.

According to Olavi Kuosmanen from Pinnacle, this defines the company as a bookmaker. “While our competitors try to limit or kick winning players out, we are doing the exact opposite. We try to focus on getting a lot of volume. Whether the volume comes from winning or losing customers does not matter. In fact, we have a lot of professional customers who are winning from us every year.” 

With a business model based on generating as much volume as possible, it is vital to explore new markets and attract new customers. That was why Pinnacle decided to focus on esports.

Exploring New Opportunities

A decade ago, the esports market was still relatively immature in terms of both revenue and viewership. Still, Pinnacle’s trading team saw a huge potential in esports. Kuosmanen elaborates, “Our trading team traditionally consisted of a lot of people with gaming backgrounds. So, way before esports got mainstream popularity, we started taking some esports betting. Fairly early on, we realised that esports was going to be something big”. 

A Rising Need for Better, Broader and More Reliable Data

 

Getting a head start on esports proved to be a great investment for Pinnacle. As the esports market matured in the following years, more and more people started to watch and bet on esports. Another natural consequence of the market development was new bookmakers entering the esports market.

To stay ahead and maintain their position as the world’s leading esports bookmaker, Pinnacle constantly needed to improve their esports offering, meaning that their need for better and broader esports data in great quantities grew. That is how the partnership between Pinnacle and GameScorekeeper began.

"Both GameScorekeeper's Fixture and Live Feeds have been huge timesavers for us. We use them to result markets, and the feeds saves our staff a lot of time every day." pinnacle logo Olavi Kuosmanen
Olavi Kuosmanen
"Whenever we have a request or need a new feature, we always feel that the team at GameScorekeeper listens, takes it seriously, and acts on it"
Olavi Kuosmanen

About the partnership, Kuosmanen elaborates, “The breath and accuracy of GameScorekeeper’s data enable us to create live esports odds and increase the number of data points in our system”. Kuosmanen adds, “The relationship with GameScorekeeper has been great, and we really like working with the team.

We do not just need high integrity data. We also need a flexible team to take our requests and pain points seriously. Whenever we have a request or need a new feature, we always feel that the team at GameScorekeeper listens, takes it seriously, and acts on it”. 

The Spillover Effect

At certain times, esports is Pinnacle’s third biggest sport measured in total amounts wagered. And it is not just in terms of volume, that esports has been a success. According to Kuosmanen, Pinnacle has also been able to reach a brand new and attractive audience, with some interesting characteristics. “Customers who really like basketball usually just bet on basketball, and customers interested in soccer usually just bet on soccer.

Whenever we get new esports customers, they usually also just bet on esports in the beginning, but what is super exciting for us, is that they often start looking at our other offerings too. So, although new esports customers primarily bet on esports in the beginning, they will for sure bet on something else as well after a while. That is obviously something that is nice to see, and something that is quite valuable”.