How has esports affected gambling in Finland?

Esports has grown in popularity in Finland over the last few years. This has not only been seen in Finland, but is a global phenomenon. The growth in popularity has also had a huge impact on the way esports has affected gambling around the world. How can esports gambling be seen in Finland and how has esports shaped the gambling scene in Finland in the last couple of years? Let's find out!

Impact on betting

Betting itself is the area where esports has had the biggest impact on gambling. Only a few years ago, the term "esports betting" did not exist in Finland, and now esports is the third most popular betting category in Finland, just after football and ice hockey. The growth in popularity has been staggering and has never been seen before in the Finnish gambling environment.

Esports betting has risen in popularity largely due to its versatility. Indeed, it is very difficult to compare it to any other sport on offer, as esports includes a wide variety of games. Football, for example, is always very similar in every league around the world, although the quality of the game varies greatly. The concept of esports includes dozens of different games, and therefore football betting should be compared to Dota 2 betting rather than esports betting.

A big influence on the growth in popularity of esports betting has been the success that both Finnish players and teams have enjoyed in various esports over the past few years. A great example of such success is the brilliant performance of Ence in CS:GO, which has been much talked about by the traditional media in Finland in 2019.

There has also been a lot of buzz around individual players' moves, which have even been bet on across various platforms. There are two separate examples of this. The first was when betting sites offered options on which would be Aleksib's next club after his departure from Ence. The second example is from the same situation, but from a different angle, when betting sites offered picks on who will replace the empty spot left by Aleksib on the Ence roster.

Impact on casinos

While esports has of course had the biggest impact of all on betting, it has also had a surprisingly large impact on online casinos. The main impact in Finland has been in the form of changes to the game selection and the optimisation of certain bonuses. Abroad, esports has also had an impact on casinos through marketing, with many casinos advertising their activities with esports characters and at various esports events, for example.

The most important way in which esports has influenced casinos is through the development of the range of games. As in most cases, casino operators have started to produce games based on popular trends and themes. Nowadays, every year more and more esports-themed casino games appear on the market with graphics, features, names and everything else fully adapted to the themes of, for example, CS:GO or Dota 2.

The optimisation of bonuses by casinos is something that nobody thought esports could do. Yet many casinos have started to target their promotions to work only on certain esports-themed casino games when there is a big event going on for that esports game. In particular, free spins in online casinos are often targeted to work only on such games, as they are the most common promotional bonus in casinos.

Other effects on gambling

Esports has also affected gambling in other ways, but perhaps not quite as visibly and obviously as the above. Esports betting has led to a significant increase in the number of live streams on betting sites, among other things. In the past, there has been some shortage of live streams in Finland, as sports require very expensive separate licences. In contrast, it has proven to be very profitable and cheap to show streams from esports, which is why many betting sites also show them.

By the way, esports has also influenced gambling in that, as esports betting has become more and more common, more and more discussion forums are containing general discussions about gambling. It all started with discussions about esports betting, which later spread to become a larger part of other discussion topics.