James Coxon, SBTech’s Vice President Commercial chats to 5 Star about how the company is helping operators in the boom of eSports and virtual betting during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Can you give us an introduction to SBTech’s virtual and eSports offer?

Virtual sports are a key component to the SBTech platform and over the years our portfolio has significantly grown. We work closely with virtual providers such as Sportradar, Leap Gaming, Inspired, Golden Race and Kiron Interactive, integrating their content to deliver more than 3,000 virtual events per day for our premium gaming partners, which includes a variety of sports such as basketball, football, American football, boxing, horse racing and greyhound racing to name a few, with matches taking place every 150 seconds at every hour of the day. 

In terms of esports, we are currently offering more than 180 esports events through our sportsbook thanks to our close relationship with our partners at Sportradar and Betgenius.

The appeal lies in the volume, both in the number of matches and available sports. With matches taking place every 150 seconds 24/7 across 3v3 basketball, football, American football, boxing and horse racing just to name a few, that is where the excitement lies, and we have worked to bring in new partner content to our platform.

How do you assess the current place of virtual sports games for sportsbooks?

Virtuals offer a fantastic entertainment experience as well as being the ideal alternative product to fill the gap the cancellation of live sports events has left. In early April, if we compare this year against 2019, we see that we have taken 267% more bets on virtual sports.

I should also acknowledge that in recent years, content providers have made fantastic improvements in the quality of the product and the experience is now extremely authentic and realistic. 

The appeal lies in the volume, both in the number of matches and available sports. With matches taking place every 150 seconds 24/7 that is where the excitement lies, and there are innovative inclusions as well, such as 3v3 basketball.

Can you describe your virtual and eSports presence right now, and how do you see that market developing?

Virtuals offer a fantastic entertainment experience as well as being the ideal alternative product to fill the gap the cancellation of live sports events has left. 

As a result of this current pandemic and the suspension of every major league and tournament around the world, players are rapidly becoming accustomed to a product they might not have tried. The unprecedented situation we are all in has opened many people’s eyes to virtuals and it has become more mainstream.

As an example, as many are aware, the annual Grand National in the UK was replaced with a virtual race, which exposed this gaming initiative to a mainstream audience, with almost 5 million viewers, is likely to have a significant impact on the evolution of virtual sports.

Our relationships with third party providers has ensured that SBTech can provide our gaming partners with a fantastic selection of virtual sports and esports.

Betting on esports is still in its relative infancy, however events are becoming more popular with huge global viewing figures. The 2019 Fortnite World Cup, for example, had more than two million viewers on YouTube and streaming channel Twitch. As a concept, esports presents an interesting opportunity in that is not like other sports and is a different vertical and requires specialist attention. 

With more than 180 events provided per day right now through our sportsbook, we are aware of the nuances and additional opportunities that esports can bring our sector and are providing a product that caters for this.

Where do you envision these products being offered by operators?

From our perspective, it is essential that our partners can offer a customised, differentiated experience to their players. At SBTech we are committed to ensuring that that we can facilitate this and allow our partners to not only grow revenue through expanding their product offer to players, but also to help them launch these products into new territories.

Has the current situation opened the door for minority sports to become more popular?

We continue to work closely with our third-party data providers to ensure we have a rich calendar of events with available pre-match and live betting opportunities available to our entire network and are utilising all of our expertise to provide operators with new sports betting opportunities.

Table tennis is one example which has shown to be an interesting proposition for bettors in this period. We saw a staggering 817% increase in the number of bets in a one-week period in March compared to the same period in 2019, and turnover increasing at a similar rate of 777% when compared to the same period.

Our trading team has been working tirelessly, offering more than 500 events on one day alone. While we cannot control which sports do and don’t get cancelled, what we can control is ensuring that our partners have an extensive range of markets available, and that their customers can enjoy a premium betting experience.