Will live casinos be an esport soon?
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In recent years, esports have become more and more popular as the younger generations champion such play. With esports now being broadcast live to fans across many gaming platforms and social media channels like YouTube, their popularity is spreading across the world like a wildfire. According to statistics, esports has already attracted 4.5 billion dollars worth of investments, as competitive gaming viewership is expected to reach more than 646 million by 2023.
On the other side of the fence, online casinos dominate the gaming space and while egaming is already being incorporated into land based casinos, the time has come for online casinos to begin incorporating esports to expand their horizons. While the two currently exist separately, as the concept of the live casino becomes more popular, there is a great opportunity for online casinos and esports to merge.
Below, we’ll take a look at how live casinos could incorporate esports.
The live casino scene
Live casinos were originally developed as a way to bridge the physical and virtual worlds. While land based casinos offer a rich environment that’s full of atmosphere, online casinos are able to offer more innovative and engaging games but can sometimes lack the live casino atmosphere.
As a solution, live casinos were created to offer the best of both worlds. Live casinos enable players to interact with a live dealer in a private room. The dealer’s actions are broadcast live on a screen to players, enabling the game to be more interactive and take place in real time. This adds a heightened feeling of excitement to the game, while making it more immersive.
During live games, specialist sensors are used to monitor the actions of the dealer and the game, while intelligent casino software determines the outcome of the game in accordance with the gaming rules and the events taking place in a particular game.
Top benefits of an online casino
Online casinos are rapidly outranking their brick and mortar counterparts as the global digital revolution has made it easier for people all over the world to access online gaming. Through more accessible pricing and the likes of the 5G internet roll out, players are able to enjoy their favorite online casinos games from anywhere and anytime, with enhanced connectivity and reduced lag compared to half a decade ago.
Yet, online casinos go the extra mile to offer an even more enhanced experience. Some of the top benefits of a live casino include:
- Communicate with the dealer
Unlike a virtual dealer which is usually a bot where you can’t interact with them, in a live casino, a player can interact with the dealer for a more exciting and immersive experience.
- Old casino games are again popular
While traditional casino games like baccarat have recently been less popular than over high performing casino games like online slots, roulette and poker, live casinos are bringing these games back that were otherwise essentially falling off the radar.
Live gaming takes the game to a whole new level and transforms the players experience, making them more popular again.
- Fewer automated algorithms
While technology has made automated algorithms highly intelligent and complex so that they perform fairly and accurately, there’s just something about a human controlling the game which puts players at ease.
Live casinos rely less on automated algorithms and more on the live dealer, creating a more interactive experience for players.
Esports in real life casinos
Esports have already begun to be included in brick and mortar casinos as savvy developers have incorporated esports arenas into casino venues. One of the best cities to explore eGaming enhanced casinos in Macau, one of the most popular casino gaming destinations in the world.
Casinos such as The Studio Casino feature a huge esports arena that can fit up to 300 people. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic in Las Vegas, the HyperX esports arena is soon to open its doors amongst the casino giants of the neighborhood.
Combining esports and live casinos
With live casinos becoming so popular, it presents the perfect opportunity for esports to be incorporated. Some of the most popular esports games currently include League of legends, Dota 2, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch and Fortnite. In addition, some of the most popular live sporting events where people place their bets include the Superbowl and the NBA finals.
While it’s difficult for online casinos to create an esports arena, there are plenty of opportunities to pair with platforms like twitch or create their own versions which enable players to turn their interests of gaming and sports events into one.
In addition, live casino games like online poker, roulette and slots could further be developed to incorporate more live elements and include more interaction between players.
As we can see, esports is rapidly becoming the future of online gaming, in which it will be crucial for live casinos to begin to incorporate the esports industry into their offerings in order to remain competitive. While the way in which they will do this isn’t quite ironed out yet, the future of live casinos and esports is an exciting one with a huge array of possibilities.
