The Crypto market is going to switch to fantasy sports

As the pandemic continues and the world becomes more digital, traditional sports betting faces lots of challenges. The covid-19-related restrictions had a bad impact on the physical sports industry. Most of the planned sports tournaments and major events have been canceled on delay and therefore, the number of people taking part in traditional sports betting has reduced.

As per the PwC research, the sports market growth outlook in coming years will reduce to 3.3% from 8% average growth observed in past 3-5 years.

As highlighted in the PwC report, now eSports is on the rise. Not surprisingly, many traditional sports betters turned to online games where they still have the possibility to place bets. And now eSports is gaining more and more customers.

Not only eSports, but cryptocurrencies also continue to become more popular, especially after its major increase in prices. Currently, eSports plans to collaborate more with blockchain technology as they realize that using digital currencies could be very convenient for their customers. Even more, some experts believe that the future of eSports is completely dependent on the use of cryptocurrency, and considering the fact that the usage of cryptos is increasing in this industry, probably eSports will continue to thrive in the following years. 

Both eSports and blockchain which are often referred to as digitally native ecosystems are carrying on to collaborate but what is more important to mention is that recently they decided to adopt industries like fantasy sports. As digital research firm Messari announces, fantasy sports actually has the potential of becoming the next big crypto market. 

Fantasy Sports in the crypto market

Fantasy sports is a type of game that is usually played with the use of the internet. In this form of games, players assemble virtual sports teams of real players and compete according to the performance of the real players in actual games. This kind of game is an integral part of the eSports industry and not surprisingly, it has become a major entertainment for players after the lockdown. Fantasy sports have shown significant growth after the COVID-19 lockdown, and synergism with the blockchain-based applications could actually be favorable for increasing fan engagement in this expanding market. 

However, integrating fantasy sports into the crypto market is not something completely new and in fact, it’s already a thing in some countries. For example, among the most popular eSports activities is CSGO skins betting in Russia with crypto. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive developed by Valve is one of the most frequently played video games for everybody who enjoys multiplayer games. This game is especially admired by Russian players who usually use cryptocurrencies to place bets while playing CS: GO.

The tendency to bet with digital currencies is becoming more welcome as people start to realize that it’s much more convenient than using traditional fiat and especially today. Considering the fact that it’s not possible to use digital currencies in traditional sports betting, probably using cryptos will raise concerns in this industry while promising lots of benefits to eSports.

Taking part in fantasy games will be even more favorable for the crypto users as it’s more convenient and gives them opportunities to place bets while competing with the opponent team more quickly and effectively.

Betting and Fantasy Sports are expected to grow

Today eSports and the blockchain market are waiting impatiently for developments of emerging technologies and 5G connectivity which is important to fully adopt blockchain-based fantasy sports. This collaboration is promising success because according to this research, fantasy sports, and online sports betting, in general, will grow about 7.2% in the next few years which is an amazing rate for the eSports community. 

Betting on fantasy sports is a little bit different from traditional sports betting, where players usually bet on the outcome of a game. The main difference is that wagering on fantasy sports means that you are creating an imaginary team and competing against opponents for a cash prize. 

How Covid-19 affected the sports betting industry?

As a result of the spread of coronavirus nowadays it’s certain that digitizing the sporting experience is necessary to keep pace with the current challenges. The main reason for this can be attributed to a drastic reduction in revenue after the first lockdown. Restricting the indoor gatherings was a real shock for the whole sports industry but even now, when the world adapted to this new situation a little bit, it’s highly unlikely that physical sports events will return until at least 2022. This is why the industry tries to search for new ways to increase user engagement. 

It is expected that turning to fantasy sports will be favorable for increasing the revenue and boosting fan engagement as they find it more convenient to take part in online fantasy games and compete with virtual teams. Crypto’s intersection with the eSports world is part of this plan, as it’s said in the Messari report about Crypto’s next consumer application. But before they start to realize the plan, it’s important to wait for further improvements of this collaboration before fantasy sports will be finally adopted for consumers’ use. 

Now as the lockdown still continues in many countries, large sports organizations are working hard to search for additional revenue streams and it helps the climate of fantasy sports to grow rapidly. The main concern for them is a poor user experience which reduced drastically after the reduction of viewership revenues. Adopting blockchain technology into eSports is believed to be an excellent way to attract new customers, as well as to push the old ones to participate more frequently and as a result, it’s predicted that blockchain has the power to increase user engagement in the eSports industry. 

It’s important to note that the three most popular crypto fantasy sports – Sorare, NBA Top Shot, and MLB Champions have already raised over $10 million in sales. From them, Sorare and MLB Champions use Ethereum as crypto tokens, while NBA Top Shot uses the Flow blockchain. Probably, even more games in the fantasy sports field will start to implement blockchain technology, and hopefully, for the eSports industry, user engagement will continue to grow.