Mark McGuinness has more than 17 years’ experience in digital marketing director roles within the iGaming industry. He is the co-founder of esportsbet a consultancy and resource for gamers and sports bettors who wish to start betting on eSports.
EEG: What attracted you to an eSports gambling affiliate?
Mark McGuinness: I enjoy gaming myself for recreation and leisure, plus I’ve been interested in skill based experiences and products for a number of years now. Also as I work in the online gambling industry, it allowed me to combine my passion and profession for the intersection between eSports and online sports gambling.
EEG: How do CPA’s within eSports betting compare with mainstream online sports betting affiliate deals?
Mark McGuinness: At the moment, the eSports betting affiliate performance model is much the same as other gaming product categories, same rev share and CPA’s. There hasn’t been a bespoke or unique CPA level or rev share for eSports traffic set as of yet, simply because the KPI’s for the betting operator in terms of the life-time value is still maturing. So at the moment the operator’s compensatory model for affiliates just follows the standard sports betting affiliate traffic. I fully expect this to change quickly as more betting operators start to offer more betting markets on eSports, thus vying for premium eSports traffic, could result in CPA’s offered increasing very quickly.
EEG: eSports in some quarters is believed to be niche and non-mainstream. Therefore how important is content for an eSports Betting affiliate?
Mark McGuinness: eSports is anything but niche or a non-mainstream activity. For example League of Legends has more than 27 million people playing on a daily basis, with around 67 million players logging on monthly according to Riot the publisher of the game. If you compare this to traditional or mainstream betting sites, what site do you know that has that equivalent amount of daily players? The Grand National or World Cup final or live in-play betting doesn’t attract that level of concurrent logged in players!
Content is always going to be king and it’s the same for eSports betting. Your content strategy shall depend on the audience segment you are targeting. In my view, I see three distinct audience profiles; the first group are traditional sports bettors who have never heard of eSports and are looking for an edge or value to beat the bookmaker as their motivation is to win more money from gambling. The second group would be eSports players either on the circuit, retired or amateur, or those that are already betting on unregulated / unlicensed sites offering skin gambling. Thirdly the largest group are the consumers that have a proclivity for transacting online and buying digital goods; use skill based community products. Content is king, but so is the power of the community, as the eSports audience is the digital or millennial generation, so that means community at the centre of the digital entertainment experience.
EEG: Is eSports gambling here to stay or is there a real possibility it may turn out to be just another passing fad?
Mark McGuinness: Video gaming or [eSports] both recreational and competitive has been here for over 30 years. eSports and video gaming of some product form pervades every facet of our digital and connected lives. We find games on our smartphone, smartwatch, in our home [consoles, Smart TV’s or held hands]. It is in our workplace and is now being introduced into our schooling system as a form of e-learning to engage a child or adolescents cognitive skills. It is, therefore, a central digital entertainment experience and economy for the ever-growing socially connected masses.
eSports is therefore more than just a passing fad as some industry observers have said. It is as much a digital experience as a real-world experience. It’s both digital entertainment and gambling opportunity. It has the potential to reach millions of new customers for mainstream online gambling operators.
Conversely it also has the potential to disrupt. Current online sports based gambling models have little to zero socialization and could be defined as a solitary activity. The connected generation wish instant gratification, social giving / sharing and community at the heart of their experience. This could mean traditional sports books may just have to rethink their business models to win over this new digital betting customer.
