What can you tell us about Thunderpick, your role at the company and how you found yourself as Head of Strategy?
Thunderpick was founded a few years ago, just before the Covid-19 pandemic started. It was built as an esports-first betting platform and really took off when the pandemic struck, as most sportsbook operators leaned into using esports betting, since traditional sports were not available during that time. As the company emerged from the pandemic, it started to see major growth. The reason for this is that other brands, which mostly offer multiple products, went back to their bread and butter, which was traditional sports. In contrast, Thunderpick continued to focus on the esports-first platform, and this resonated with players who saw the authenticity of the brand, which was built for esports players with their needs in mind. That’s why the company wants to keep its unique selling point in the space, focusing on being esports-first, while still offering sports and casino as secondary products. While competing with multi-product platforms, Thunderpick wants to excel at esports and maintain its position as a leader in this area. The brand was created by esports enthusiasts, including people who have played esports in the past and those who currently play it. Now, with over 60 employees, including an entire marketing team and trading platform, Thunderpick is poised for significant growth in 2023 with a planned marketing campaign. It’s worth noting that there was a spike in esports betting during the Covid-19 pandemic, but it has since subsided. So now it is about building esports betting as its own entity, rather than it simply being something to fill the sports betting void created by Covid-19.
How can esports betting platforms better market themselves to gambling operators, when traditional betting dominates sportsbooks?
There are a few ways to look at this. To give you a brief history, I worked in traditional sports betting for nine years before transitioning into esports, which is new and exciting for me. The biggest difference between the two is the player. In traditional sports betting, you don’t necessarily have to be a fan of the sport you’re betting on. You’re just looking for the betting opportunity or entertainment. However, in esports, we’re seeing a big shift where the people betting are often also players and major fans. This means marketing to them will be different from what traditional sportsbooks have been doing. Brands that want to do well in this space need to be extremely authentic and knowledgeable because esports players are in big communities and are very vocal, especially on social media and other channels like Discord. Sponsoring teams and getting involved in tournaments will also be a huge part of marketing esports betting.
Unlike traditional sports leagues, gambling is allowed in the majority of esports leagues, allowing gambling partners to have a voice in the league. The opportunity for growth is huge, with numbers going into the billions and exponential growth expected in the next few years. The money will come from betting volume, sponsorship investments and prize pools, with sponsorship generating at least 60% of revenue. The value of an esports player is actually quite huge when compared to a traditional sports player.
What are some of the benefits of esports betting over traditional betting?
It’s hard to say which is better, sports betting or esports betting, because they are so different. If you’re looking at sports betting, the less experienced better will usually go for prop betting, which is more fun to bet on. However, in the esports world, you can have a personal connection to the players because you often watch them play live and you are watching from familiar platforms. This creates more of an emotional connection to the players, and there are different types of bets available, such as betting on different maps or skins of the game. You can also personalise the skins and even stream the game and bet live, all from your desktop.
Interestingly, while we see a lot of sports betting activity from mobile phones, about 90% of esports betting activity comes from the desktop. This is because you are in your own virtual world, connected globally, and can talk to players all over the world while enjoying the game from the comfort of your own home.
There have been fun marketing campaigns, such as when DoorDash ran a campaign during a major esports tournament, and esports players really connected with it because they could order food to their homes while playing and watching their favourite games. This shows that marketers are changing their strategies to target esports players, and the popularity of esports is only going to grow as more people catch on to the “secret” of esports. It may even be treated as a traditional sport by the end of the year, with more media coverage and a formatted sports calendar.
What is needed to convince operators that a gap can be bridged between traditional sports bettors and esports bettors? Or should operators accept that a whole separate platform is needed for esports bettors?
In the betting world, there are obviously different types of bettors, right? There are those who do it for entertainment and then there are those who do it solely for revenue as a source of income, and these are the sharp bettors. The regular betting companies typically target recreational bettors since they are more numerous and will likely generate more profits over time. However, when it comes to esports, it’s really more of a hobby, something people enjoy. There are experienced bettors who do it for income and who might do research on odds to make money off these betting lines.
From a recreational standpoint, though, we know that about 80% of people play video games, so education on how to bet on video games is also important. I’m still learning about the different maps and insurances, and it’s really a different offering than what traditional sportsbooks provide. For instance, while we might offer a 100% match bonus to traditional sports players, esports players want combo boosts and map insurance. It’s a completely different type of entertainment with different ways of betting and consuming it. You can’t just offer it as another product; you need to build it out as a new platform to go after a different type of consumer and provide them with what they want. If you don’t, esports fans will see through it and feel like you’re just trying to make money off them without offering what they want.
That’s why Thunderpick continuously goes back to what esports players want and how we can adapt to their needs, whether it’s providing a live feature so they can stream the game and bet at the same time, or considering how they want to consume esports on their desktop. This is how the bridge between traditional sports betting and esports betting can happen. Some of the biggest competitors might have abandoned esports after the pandemic, but brands like Thunderpick are continuously building a product that provides what esports players want and need, ensuring that we keep them as customers.
Do you think, therefore, that a demand for third-party suppliers to provide operators with solutions will only grow?
Sure, definitely. I mean, bringing in third-party suppliers will become more important to the big operators in the sense of giving them a product that will actually be useful to the sports player and bettor. It’s not only about providing a wide range of betting options, but also how to bet on them. For example, on Thunderpick’s esports page, the match page is designed to include buttons, the list of games going live, the match of the day, the different odds you can bet on and opening up a streaming option to watch it live. This is the kind of experience that esports players are looking for, and we continue to work on improving these features.
In my career in the gambling industry, esports is an exciting area. It feels like a startup world that is about to blow up, and there are big things to come for Thunderpick. I believe we are entering the market at a great time and hope to have some major announcements to share with you in a few months.
