Esports Betting: Esports Technologies’ IPO Starts off Hot
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Esports Technologies is a sports betting platform that solely focuses on Esports. The company is currently operating in South America, Central America, and Asia. The website that it runs this platform under is called Gogawi.
The company launched its IPO last Thursday, and the stock started at $20. It quickly rose and hit a peak of nearly $50 per share. However, following the initial burst on Thursday and Friday, the stock has since settled back towards its original price point of $20 this Monday morning.
The IPO Launch
Esports is undoubtedly one of the most prominent forms of entertainment in the modern world, and with sports betting becoming more and more popular, especially in the United States, it seemed like investors wanted to jump in.
The peak on Friday hit a volume of 800k near that $50 mark, capping at $49.20 a share. The current shares outstanding sit at 10.65 million, and through the first three days of trading, the average volume lies at 5 million. These are good numbers for a brand new company that is not even live in the United States. Not to mention that the company is also in a brand new sector that investors may not know a ton about.
Esports Technologies and America
Esports betting is not widely available in the United States market. While sportsbooks would like to offer more wagers, there are quite a few restrictions on Esports betting in every state with legal sports betting. The company will surely want to unlock the massive US market, but it will have to wait for regulators to get on board to do so.
Now, the interesting question is whether Esports Technologies will sell its betting technology to massive sports betting entities like Flutter, BetMGM, DraftKings, William Hill, and others. This seems like the obvious road since these sportsbooks are already established; however, having Gogawi enter the United States market on its own is a real possibility.
The website designed by Esports Technologies is arguably the best user interface that we have ever seen on a sports betting platform, and sportsbooks could take note of the clean design that Esports Technologies has created on their business-to-consumer platform.
How Big is Esports
While Esports is large in the United States, it is arguably bigger and a larger part of the culture in Asia, Europe, and South America. Due to this, many in America might be surprised about how big Esports is. In quotes provided by Legal Sports Report, according to Esports Technologies CEO Aaron Speach, there were over 500 million Esports viewers in 2020. To put that number in perspective, the NFL generated 160 million viewers and $64 billion in legal wagers.
ESports undoubtedly has a future in the legal wagering market. The scene is huge, and the players at the top levels are making crazy amounts of cash. This is important to note as it makes it harder for the competitive integrity to be compromised when these players are making so much playing fair and square.
However, this does not mean that scandals do not happen. Often times in lower-tier leagues, the players do not make a ton, and this has been the source of some controversies. Just last week, we wrote an article on a major North American matching fixing scandal in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The controversy surrounds ESL’s second tier-league in North America, The Mountain Dew League.
