Once upon a time, betting was restricted to a casino in specific parts of the world or in the beautiful Sin City Las Vegas, Nevada. However, that is for professionals, and people like me began their betting career playing video games and claiming to be the best player in the town. Nowadays, millions of dollars are wagered on video games, and the sportsbooks themselves are taking full advantage of it.
NFL odds will be critical as we are in the NFL Playoffs and are beginning to see what teams advance and get one step closer to the Super Bowl. Make sure to bet responsibly and understand all that is going on.
It’s just like regular sports
I will stick to the sports video games titles because that is what I am most familiar with compared to the other genres of games that are killing it in the betting world. However, in the sports titles, there are tournaments that are going on to determine the top players that net the winners thousands of dollars.
A story trended a couple of years ago about a Madden Ultimate Team player winning a tournament just running the ball, so there is a lot of money playing in the tournaments themselves.
However, you do not even need to be skilled on the sticks to win money, as some sportsbooks give you odds on head-to-head play. The NBA has their own NBA 2k League where pro players are drafted to a team and play other teams, just like they were in the actual NBA.
Sportsbooks will put odds on anything people are willing to bet, and they can place lines, and people are going to bite on it.
You don’t even need people playing to bet
That’s right; video game betting has gone so extreme that people are placing bets on games without any people playing instead of watching the simulation of a game. One perfect example of this is the Twitch channel “LiveFootballSims.”
The Twitch channel is currently sitting at 18,000 followers as of this writing and is an exclusive simulation of Madden 20 between two teams.
It gained popularity during the COVID-19 shutdown, where professional sports could not be held, and forced people to be creative. Instead of waiting for the NFL week to begin, they will have the Jets vs. Bengals, and thousands of people watch and place wagers on the game happening in front of them via Madden.
The sportsbooks take odds like an NFL Sunday as they have prop bets, betting on the spread, and everything in between.
People are hungry for content and ways to increase their bankroll. They will sit watching a 60-minute simulation of an NFL game over 15 months old just to gauge if Sam Darnold on the New York Jets will pass for more than 247.5 yards against the Cincinnati Bengals.
It’s a lot of fun
Do not get me wrong, imagining that betting on video games would escalate from tournaments and sitting in a bedroom against your friends a handful of years ago would blow an optimist’s mind. However, the leagues that run it do a great job, and as always, adding a betting aspect into it will always get more eyes on the product.
It makes people who would generally be uninterested suddenly trying to figure out what gives someone an edge on a game with RNG in it. It is unable to quantify some things but extend the importance on others.
Websites, leagues, and individuals themselves can have betting attached to them. It really added another way for people to understand and enjoy some video game titles that they grew up with.
It has hit Madden, MLB the Show, NHL, NBA, and Fifa, just to name a few.
Go ahead and log into Twitch, place a wager on a video game, and see how enjoyable it can be.