Esports Is On Your Book. So Why Isn’t It Performing?

TL;DR

A lot of sportsbooks are running esports with solid coverage and still watching it underperform. At the core, the problem is structural, but zoom out, and you’ll find that the real issue is books running a product that doesn’t meet the expectations of today’s bettors.  

Why esports still underperforms, even with solid coverage

Ask a head of sportsbook how their esports product is doing, and you’ll usually get one of two answers. The first is a confident response from an operator who’s been investing in the vertical for a while, knows exactly where it sits in their book, and sees solid, consistent performance. The second is a slightly uncomfortable pause from someone who expected esports to be bringing in more profit and isn’t quite sure why it’s not.

The second answer is, unfortunately, quite common.  

Coverage is in place, the markets are live, acquisition efforts are bringing bettors to the platform, but the numbers still look flat. When that happens, the usual instinct is to add more markets, run more promotions, or look for better traffic. But that rarely changes the outcome in a way that shows up consistently in the numbers.

The more useful question is what’s actually happening after a bettor opens the app, and where there’s a disconnect between what they want and what they get.

The invisible leaks

Every time a bettor opens your app, starts following a match, and walks away without placing a bet, that’s a session you probably paid for with ad spend but got no return on your investment. You don’t see it in the handle number because handle reflects the bets that did happen. The ones that didn’t don’t leave a trace unless someone goes looking for them.

The reason the bets don’t happen comes down to a mismatch that most sportsbooks aren’t built to handle, or don’t think about. Traditional sportsbooks are structured around events, fixtures, kickoffs, markets opening and closing on a schedule.

Esports and esports bettors don’t behave like that. While many follow titles and tournaments closely, they’ll also be looking for something to engage with whenever the mood strikes. When the product can’t meet them in those moments, the session ends at the first point of friction rather than at the end of a fixture, and the operator loses everything that would have happened afterward.

That distance between a bettor showing up and actually placing the intended bet is what we mean by the esports engagement gap. It opens quietly, compounds across sessions, and is where most esports underperformance actually lives.

Behind the engagement gap: Giving esports bettors what they need

The esports bettor is different. Most of them are Gen Z, a group that grew up alongside nonstop digital innovation and expects products to keep pace with how they actually use them. They know the games, they know the players, and they know what they need to bet with confidence. When the product doesn’t give it to them, the leaks start opening.

Live esports moves quickly. A bettor watching a CS2 round or a Dota 2 teamfight either has the information they need to place their bet immediately, or, if they're unsure, they'll pause. In live esports betting, odds and markets may only be available for a few seconds before they close or change. Once the next round or fight begins, that moment has passed.

Because most esports betting happens live, every second a bettor spends confused, uncertain, or trying to catch up is a second in which they don't place a bet. For an operator, that means lost handle and revenue.

Then there’s the bet slip. Experienced esports bettors don’t arrive with a vague sense of who might win. They have a specific read on how a match is likely to play out, and they want to back that view as they imagined it. If the bet slip can’t handle the combination they’re trying to build, that’s another leak. Instead of leaving the app, they’ll be forced to downgrade their ticket. A three-selection combo becomes a single market; a higher-value ticket becomes a smaller one. The sportsbook still records a bet, but captures less of the bettor’s original intent. The loss is invisible because the activity is there. It’s the value of the activity that shrank.

Then there’s the leak caused by a lack of content, the most expensive of the three engagement leaks.

When a match ends and the bettor doesn’t find anything suitable to replace it with, the session ends too. Every bettor who leaves at that point becomes someone the operator must reacquire for the next match at full acquisition cost. The cost isn’t one missed bet. It's everything that would have happened next.

None of these look dramatic in isolation. Across a session they compound, and across a quarter they add up to a meaningful share of esports revenue.

Read more about understanding the esports bettor

What does the esports engagement gap cost operators?

For most operators, this used to be a small question. Esports was a smaller line item, and losing some activity inside it wasn’t worth measuring closely. That’s changed. Some operators now see esports contributing to their top sports by handle, and at that level underperformance becomes a revenue gap.

Acquisition economics have shifted too. The CAC (cost of acquisition) is higher than it was a few years ago, which means every session that doesn’t convert is a more expensive loss.

The difficulty is that none of this is obvious on a dashboard. Coverage is there, handle is moving, live markets are updating. On the surface, the vertical looks like it’s working. The gap becomes visible only when you look at what's happening inside the session: session length, bet frequency, how bets are constructed, how often bettors return without being retargeted. Most operators don’t measure esports at that level of granularity consistently, which means the gap shows up in revenue without clearly appearing in reporting.

How do sportsbooks actually close the esports engagement gap?

Closing it means addressing each point where the session breaks down. Fixing one and leaving the others open usually just shifts the drop-off.

1. Esports content around the clock

For the downtime problem, the goal is continuity. When the live schedule pauses, bettors need something worth staying for. 

These days, there are a number of 24/7/365 content options available to meet that need. These can include fast-paced player-vs-player matchups in games inspired by traditional sports, such as eFootball and eBasketball, as well as quick esports-style matches like Duels in CS2 and Dota 2. At Oddin.gg, we’re even pushing the boundaries of esports to give football fans more unique experiences. 

These aren’t standalone content. They’re points in the same session where the bettor would otherwise hesitate or leave, kept open so the session can continue. Operators don’t need to adopt all of them at once; each one addresses a specific point where the session breaks down, and closing the most expensive gap first is usually the right place to start.

Read more about 24/7 esports content

2. Must-have features and unique innovations

The basic features that close the esports engagement gap aren’t particularly new, yet many sportsbooks still lack them and don’t appreciate their value. That’s where the gap lives. Not in the absence of futuristic technology, although that helps, but in the absence of the basics that experienced esports bettors expect as a minimum.

During the match, bettors need context fast enough to act and place a bet with confidence.  This context comes from two main sources: data, including statistics and team history, and visual understanding, which typically comes from external streams. Having real-time data available can help bettors assess the situation effectively, while visual elements provide a deeper insight into the match dynamics. Speed is crucial, as it allows bettors to form opinions and make bets at the right moment.

Additionally, for the betting process, it’s important for bettors to place the bets they want to make. This often means access to more nuanced betting options. With their deep knowledge, experienced bettors want the freedom to customize their ticket with a combination of bets. This approach can increase the overall value of bets and higher engagement, both of which have a significant benefit for the operator’s revenue.

Each one of these solutions closes a specific point where sessions break down. Together, they describe what an esports product looks like when it's actually built for the way esports bettors use it.

Why esports performance comes down to session design

The operators pulling ahead in esports aren’t the ones with the deepest coverage or the largest acquisition budgets. They’re the ones whose product holds a session together from the moment a bettor arrives to the moment the next match they care about begins.

That gap is widening in places most dashboards don’t surface clearly: session length, bet value, reacquisition rate, and the revenue that appears when bettors stay instead of leaving early.

Every session that ends early is cost already spent and value left behind. The difference between esports that performs and esports that doesn’t sits inside that gap.