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ccording to Eduardo Peláez, Online Products Director, Strendus, in Mexico, there are two types of esports bettors: those coming from the ‘gamer’ community; and traditional sports fans looking for new entertainment options.
“In Mexico, the esports betting industry is still a niche for games like League of Legends, Rainbow Six or Counter-Strike, made up of people from those communities who know the rules and dominate the language,” Peláez told local news agency EFE.
The Strendus expert described the ‘gamer bettor’ as a young adult, aged between 18 and 25, in contrast with traditional sports bettors, who are usually between 18 and 35.
“The most popular games for Strendus gamblers are FIFA and 2K (based on the NBA) videogames, followed by League of Legends. FIFA tournaments receive three or four times more bets than the rest of the games, I think that is because of football-soccer’s popularity,” he explained.
According to Peláez, figures show esports gamblers make passionate rather tan rational decisions when choosing their bets: they are not seeking to win money, but to have fun. He added that in Mexico, bettors prefer to spend their money on major leagues located in more developed regions in terms of esports —such as Asia and Europe— instead of local or Latin American tournaments.
However, the statistics expert has also said that esports betting represented in 2020 less than 1% of Strendus’ profits, since the more than 55 million gamers that spend their money in this gambling vertical are still ‘very few’.
“Strendus top five sports are football-soccer and the four most popular games in the U.S.: NBA’s basketball, MLB’s baseball, NFL’s American football, and NHL’s ice-hockey”, he said.
Peláez recognized that the suspension of sporting events due to the COVID-19 pandemic drove a 200 percent growth in esports betting, but once traditional sports resumed, the demand for electronic sports dropped and numbers stood at twice higher than pre-pandemic levels.
As regards the eLiga MX, the FIFA tournament organized by Mexican football, only 10% of traditional football bettors turned to the eleague.
