3 Differences Between Esports And Traditional Sports

9 Aug 2020: Traditional sports, or sports as we know it, had gone a long way from where it began centuries ago. Now, the world is enjoying prestigious and huge sporting leagues that are extremely popular all over the world as such the NBA for basketball, the Premier League for English football, the Indian Premier League for cricket, and many more. However, technology made it possible for sports to become more than these games–and thus, esports was born.

Much like traditional sports, esports are games that you can either play for fun or play competitively. Esports has been more quite some time now, and in fact more and more betting sites in India are supporting esports betting. With that in mind, what sets esports apart from traditional sports?

Viewership

There is no way to properly estimate the total viewership of sports, as there are simply too many games and too many fantasies to take into consideration. Cricket alone has an estimated viewership in the billions worldwide, the same as football and basketball. While each one has their taste and preference, you can agree to one fact–almost everyone in the world has a sport that they are interested in and have at least watched once or twice in their lives.

Esports viewership, on the other hand, is nowhere near as close as the number of viewership for traditional sports. Or at least, not yet. Just for this year alone, it has been estimated that the entire esports industry is valued at a net worth of $1 billion, and is still expected to see rapid growth for the coming years, with its “peak” to be at the next five years.

Platform

Traditional sports and esports are played and appreciated in entirely different ways. In traditional sports, you either go to the game live and watch it in person, or watch it through your TV, computer, or streaming service on your device. Traditional sports is more on the experience of witnessing a game played live in front of your eyes.

Esports, on the other hand, is more on the adrenaline rush of feeling the game played and you as a spectator. Also, since esports are played usually on a computer or a gaming console, the experienced is still based on a streamed content, even if you are watching the event live an in person.

Betting opportunities

When it comes to betting opportunities, there is, without a doubt, dominance by traditional sports. After all, it is all thanks to traditional sports such as football, basketball, baseball, and cricket that there was sports betting and why there is online sports betting right now.

However, more and more bookmakers are starting to adapt esports betting as well. As more people start to watch esports and support their favorite teams or players, the bookies are starting to see this as a new opportunity to open up betting options connected to esports. The increasing number of games as an esport is also one factor as to why the concept of esports betting is getting more popular as time goes on–naturally, the more games there are, the more options for betting there would be.

Final thoughts

Overall, esports can never replace traditional sports, whether on being played, viewed, or on something that is being bet on. However, esports is not meant to replace traditional sports anyway. Rather, it is here to innovate sports and expand the definition of sports beyond a game that is played in a court, a field, or a track. Esports is here to boost traditional sports, and it also works the other way around. As the years go on, we can only expect more improvements and innovation when it comes to esports, and traditional sports would still be here just as popular and enjoyable as it is now, if not more.