American gambling research company Eilers Research, has published a new report entitled "eSports Betting: It's Real, and Bigger Than You Think".
Chris Grove, a senior consultant at the company, wrote the piece, which focuses on eSports betting.
Here is a portion of the report:
"While much has been written about eSports' cultural and economic explosion, little has been written about the nascent industry surrounding fan wagering on eSports.
“eSports betting has remained under the radar due to low visibility into the financial performance of the product and a mainstream blind spot regarding the very existence of such activity. Both forces are starting to subside, revealing a space where we estimate fans will wager over a quarter of a billion dollars on the outcome of eSports events in 2015 - a number that we project will exceed $23 billion by 2020.
"Our conclusion: eSports is an extremely hospitable environment (technologically, logistically, culturally and demographically) for real-money online wagering. Penetration of eSports betting into the gamer community and general growth of eSports betting has each been dampened to date by structural barriers that are now weakening. Concurrently, eSports betting is beginning to benefit from tailwinds generated by positive macro trends for both eSports and the broader online gambling industry."