Will Playstation 5 Impact The eSports Betting Industry?
The new PlayStation 5 console, released in November by Sony, is set to change the landscape of the gaming industry as we know it. The impact will be also felt in the blossoming eSports field which is set to undergo some serious changes. These changes will then have a further effect on the betting markets that follow the world of competitive gaming. PlayStation 4 was often a non-factor in the eSports scene and the people at Sony are hoping the new console will have a much more significant role to play in this industry.
How Will Playstation 5 Impact The eSports Betting Industry?
eSports betting is one of the rare fields that saw some benefits from the whole situation surrounding the Coronavirus pandemic. With most of the traditional sports on halt and live events canceled all around the world during the first months of the crisis, many bettors turned to eSports as a venue to wager their money on competitive events. This resulted in a sharp increase in the number of eSports betting customers, some major platforms adding eSports to their offer, and the breakthrough of several new eSports-centered betting sites. So, the eSports betting industry is in a pretty healthy state as it prepares for the changes the new generation of consoles, led by PlayStation 5, will bring.
Sony and the PlayStation have long been on the fringes of the gaming industry with most of the popular events revolving around the games exclusive to Xbox One such as Halo or Gears of War or the titles shared by both platforms. The rare exception was the Call of Duty, a game for which Sony secured exclusive rights, but other than that Playstation 4 competitive gaming was mostly limited to some less popular titles. Sony plans to disrupt the current balance with the release of PlayStation 5 and has invested a lot in making it the go-to console for competitive gamers.
PS5 PlayStation Is The Home For The Call of Duty League
As we mentioned, the PlayStation has been the home for the Call of Duty League for some time now and we can expect the relationship between Sony and Activision to extend to the new generation of consoles. This means that the elite CoD competitions will be played on the PlayStation 5 for the foreseeable future providing Sony with a foothold in this market and a place to start in exploring the opportunities for exclusive collaborations. The new console will support wired controller connections removing one of the key obstacles to using PlayStation in the massive LAN events where Bluetooth connection caused issues with hundreds of players present.
Betting On Madden, FIFA, or NBA 2K Games Online
Another area where Sony is eyeing the control of the eSports industry is the sports titles and competitive events including these games. So far, both PlayStation and the Xbox were used in high-level competitions featuring the most popular sports games such as Madden, FIFA, or NBA 2K. Sony will try to get as many as possible pro players to do their gaming on PlayStation 5 in an effort to make it a default device for these competitions. This is important for the betting industry, too since most of the traditional bettors are not that comfortable placing wagers on the action and RTS games that they don’t fully understand and much rather turn to sports games where they feel more at home and can bet on the familiar markets.
