While the esports sector has been steadily climbing the graphs to create an industry in their own right, last year´s pandemic only boosted the numbers beyond success. Now, as 2021 begins, many more eyes are on the online gaming industry than were before.
What hot esports and fantasy sports trends will we see as in the new year? Well, one of them is easy to predict, mobile gaming is going to rule the sector. Even in the tail end of last year, games like PUBG Mobile and Garena Free Fire started generating higher esports viewer numbers than PC titles like CS:GO and Dota 2, according to Newzoo.
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Charlo Barbosa, Founder and COO of GoodGamer, a fantasy sports and esports gaming platform with cricket, football, and CS:GO, shared some of the trends we can expect with The Tech Panda. He confirms that the biggest esports trend will be mobile casual games with a second version that allows users to create tournaments.
Charlo Barbosa
For Fantasy sports, new ways to create different game variants will be key so that users are not always playing in the same style contests
“For Fantasy sports, new ways to create different game variants will be key so that users are not always playing in the same style contests. It’s like people in casinos wanting to play different slots,” he says.
He also adds that with advertiser Cost Per Thousand (CPM) rates falling, game publishers are looking to earn revenue from sectors like esports.
“Users are also looking for more of a competitive social gaming experience, instead of playing against the computer all the time,” he adds.
Barbosa is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and advisor, focusing on tech startups. With 24 years of Internet marketing experience, he is considered a pioneer in the industry and a legend in the gaming industry after taking Poker.com public 20 years ago.
Industry Growth
What kind of growth can we expect for the industry? What factors would be driving this growth? According to Insider Intelligence estimates, the overall esports viewership is projected to rise at a 9% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) between 2019 and 2023, up from 454 million in 2019 to 646 million in 2023. That means the esports audience has nearly doubled over a six-year period, since the 2017 audience stood at 335 million.
Users are also looking for more of a competitive social gaming experience, instead of playing against the computer all the time
Barbosa predicts that 2021 is likely to witness a huge amount of growth, up to the tune of around 7-9%.
“It’s mainly because of Covid-19. People are just bored, sitting at home, and doing nothing, so they look to video games to keep themselves entertained and to keep their mind sharp,” he says.
Enter Fantasy Cricket
2020 was also the year when cricket entered fantasy sports. It was last September that GoodGamer launched in India with fantasy cricket and CS:GO. In this exciting new year, GoodGamer expects to offer more games in their app, and plans to actively promote their fantasy cricket props.
“We are gearing up for the next IPL cricket season this spring, and we are looking into developing a poker, rummy, and mobile tournament management platform,” says Barbosa.
Future of Online Money Games
Lately in India, online games involving betting have drawn criticism as it has been equated with gambling. This can be a legitimate concern for platforms like GoodGamer and MPL, threatened by government interference. However, Barbosa believes that since the revenue these platforms are generating are considerable, and governments will take that into account.
Until the state governments declare it illegal to gamble, we are going to forge ahead, offering our users entertaining and competitive esports and sports gaming
“Until the state governments declare it illegal to gamble, we are going to forge ahead, offering our users entertaining and competitive esports and sports gaming,” he says.
Still, the significance of regulations in online money games are not lost on him.
“I think that, eventually, it will get regulated, and we’ll all have to apply for a gaming license then. But everyone will be in the same boat if we have to all do it. And I think the government should put regulations in place that keep people from overextending themselves (e.g., regulating a participant’s number of entries or water on card games on a daily basis),” he concludes.
