The Attention Economy and Sports Betting: What Esports Gets That Traditional Sports Misses

Human attention is limited. But the competition for it? That’s seemingly endless and increasing.

For sportsbook operators, the struggle for bettors’ business is real. And customer loyalty is a rare commodity.

But this is also why esports betting is no longer just a niche feature. It’s a real solution to a problem that’s reducing profit for books across the industry. To understand why, you need to ask two key questions:

1. Where does handle really come from?
2. Where is handle most at risk?

The problem with a sportsbook strategy based on only traditional sports 

A fixture-dependent book rises and falls with the sports calendar. When there are no big games, engagement and revenue drop. This makes it hard to maintain steady growth and puts operators at risk of losing customers during slow periods.

But, this is also how many sportsbook operators still build their strategies today. They focus on a sports broadcast calendar that worked years ago, but doesn’t return the profit they need today.

In the US in 2024, September through December reported the highest handle for the year. Come the summer (June, July, and August), even though the overall market grew by 23%, those summer months each saw a 40% drop from the NFL season peak.

The numbers in Europe were similar. When the major football leagues pause, the main draw for attention disappears, and boosted offers can’t fully make up the difference.

The seasonal problem isn’t new. What’s changed is who’s noticing it most and how they’re responding. Bettors aged 18 to 34 don’t just stop betting in June. They move on to other platforms, other forms of entertainment, and other ways to spend their time and money. Operators who don’t give their customers a reason to stick around will lose them.

The usual response—offering casino games, secondary sports, or enhanced markets on lower-tier football—is one common compromise. These options serve different audiences, have different margin profiles, and often involve different regulatory considerations. Pushing a football bettor towards slots during the off-season may redirect them, but it’s not giving them an option that fits their betting profile.

Why esports supports the attention economy

CS2, League of Legends, Dota 2, and VALORANT calendars run year-round across global time zones, offering live events and betting markets nonstop. This isn’t just a scheduling detail. It highlights that esports bettors don’t want their entertainment restricted to broadcast windows. They want entertainment available any time, any day.

Esports solves for that demand with major tournaments in the summer, and regional leagues filling the gaps the rest of the year.

The in-play opportunity in esports is also fundamentally different from that in traditional sports betting. A 90-minute football match has a set rhythm: two halves, natural breaks, and stretches where not much changes. Esports titles, especially tactical shooters like CS2, create frequent bettable moments. These include individual rounds, economy states, map advantages, first blood, clutch situations, and half-time map scores. Each is a separate event with its own odds, context, and a bettor who’s paying close attention to what might happen next.

That means more time spent in the app, more active engagement per session, and more in-play handle for every hour of live content. This isn’t because the audience is betting more recklessly, but because the product gives them more options to bet on.

Who are esports bettors and what do they want?

The average traditional sports fan is about 50 years old; the average esports fan is 26. Worldwide, 32% of esports viewers are between 16 and 24, and another 30% are 25 to 34. These are the bettors every operator wants to reach: they use mobile devices, prefer in-play betting, and are used to placing bets while watching on a second screen. Interest in esports among 18 to 29-year-olds has grown from 27% in 2021 to 31% in 2024, and the gap between this group and the general population is getting wider.

This group doesn’t need to be taught how esports work. They already follow team form, track player performance, and understand the meta. They have opinions and favorite players, and that’s what creates engaged, repeat in-play bettors. But when they look for esports options on a mainstream sportsbook, they often find a limited market list, slow odds updates, and little coverage of the tournaments they care about. That’s not a real esports product. It’s just a placeholder.

An operator that lacks real esports coverage isn’t neutral with this group. It’s a product that doesn’t align with how they actually spend their time, and it shows that esports is still treated as an afterthought.

How in-play betting opportunities boost bettor retention

In-play now accounts for between 70 and 85% of all online football bets.

This isn’t a new trend; it’s where the money has been, because it’s where the excitement is.

In-play betting requires attention in a way that pre-match betting doesn’t. A bettor can place a pre-match bet and close the app, but in-play betting requires them to keep watching, track momentum, read the game, and know why the next five minutes matter. When attention drops, so do the bets. When the fixture list is empty, in-play volume falls too.

Operators who have built their revenue model around in-play betting depend on steady engagement that a seasonal fixture list can’t always provide. Esports solves both problems directly. The calendar is always active, the in-play options are broader, and the audience is already engaged and used to betting this way.

The sports betting market in the attention economy

The global esports betting market was valued at $12.67 billion in 2024 and is expected to exceed $20 billion by 2027. In Europe alone, the market is projected to grow at an 11.39% CAGR through 2032. (Europe Sports Betting Market Size | Industry Report, 2030, 2024) These forecasts aren’t just optimistic guesses; they reflect an audience shift that’s already happening. In emerging markets like Latin America and Southeast Asia, where bettors are younger and mobile use is high, esports isn’t just becoming mainstream—it already is.

The 2026 World Cup will be the biggest sports betting event ever, and operators are right to plan for it. But it’s just as important to ask what the book will look like in the months before and after the event, and whether the product built for that peak can sustain engagement year-round.

Operators who see their sports portfolio as an attention strategy—focusing on what’s live, for which audience, and at what time of year—are building books that grow steadily all year. Those who treat it as just a fixture list end up with books that rise and fall with the broadcast schedule.

During the quiet months, it’s easy to see which operators have adapted—and which haven’t. Which are you?

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