As esports continues to grow in popularity and revenue, there was no doubt that professional sports betting would follow, and now the Nevada Gaming Control Board has approved wagering for the CS:GO ESL Pro League Season 11: North America.
The approval allows for wagers to be made on the following classifications: Head to Head, winner of Each Match, and Overall Season Winner. Additional wagers that deviate from any of these three classifications may still be allowed but require a separate application and approval.
Esports betting is already a massive business venture online, with organizations like "betwayesports" and "888 sport" facilitating wagers on games like CS:GO, League of Legends, DOTA 2, and more. If there is an esports scene involved for any game, there is someone willing to give odds on a wager.
The approval by the Nevada Gaming Control Board comes as no surprise when one considers the amount of money that is moving through organizations and prize pools of tournaments. Current projections place prize money for esports in 2022 to be around $1.8 billion, so moving to legitimize betting is a smart move considering how quickly competitive gaming is growing.
Of course, with betting comes the problem of maintaining integrity among players and organizations to avoid match fixing. Around the world this is becoming a major issue as players work to throw games in exchange for payment, or to bet on the results of a game themselves.
In August of last year, six professional CS:GO competitors were arrested in in Australia following a six-month investigation by the Sporting Integrity Intelligence Unity and the Crime Intelligence Unit for suspicious activity relating to esports. Estimates were that over 20 wagers were made as the players collaborated to maximize winnings from wagers by throwing certain games.
Efforts have been implemented to curb any unethical behavior that spoils the essence of competitive gaming. In September of last year, esports bookmaker "Loot.bet" announced a formal partnership with the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) in an effort to fight corruption in professional gaming.
So far only CS:GO has received approval for betting in Nevada, but we should not be surprised to see the other major games listed in the near future. While CS:GO is a popular game, Fortnite, DOTA 2, League of Legends, and others draw major crowds and have immense prize pools at most tournaments.
Source: reuters.com, gaming.nv.gov,