Pulse

PandaScore: the anatomy of esports

By Lewis - 22 June 2021

In a wide-ranging interview with G3, Flavien Guillocheau, CEO of Pandascore, discusses AI, data, latency and integrity in esports. Flavien explains how esports has transitioned from a ‘nice to have’ product into a ‘must have’ and the importance for operators to choose the right games portfolio for their customers.

As traditional sports leagues continue to invest in esports to draw in younger fans, how does the introduction of this new generation of player impact your market approach and the general appeal of the esports sector in more traditional sports betting markets?

The collaborations between large sports leagues and esports have given mainstream markets the increased access and exposure to a new community of players. It’s a burgeoning opportunity to connect with this younger generation of punter and grow their audience incrementally.

So, from this point of view, including esports as a new product can only be a positive thing. It’s interesting for us, as a native esports company, to observe the way traditional sports operator’s attitudes have changed as this new generation of player is ushered into the market at an increasing rate.

Before, esports was probably seen as a ‘nice to have’ product, but now, it has clearly transitioned into a ‘must have’. The lockdown period undisputedly proved how big of a draw this nascent vertical could be.

The incredible level of esports activity we’re now experiencing has proven without doubt that esports is now a betting vertical, making it very difficult to ignore as a vital addition to most operator’s portfolios.

Just like normal sports fans, esports fans love live action, plus they are very used to consuming live match related data. Working out the rules and strategies to different games is in an esports fan’s DNA, demonstrating their openness to more complex styles of betting. Offering quality live betting experiences and micro market products is key to piquing this interest from esports punters.

In terms of how this has affected our approach to the market, it hasn’t really changed anything for us. This generation of player has always been our main focus. We’re esports fans ourselves, so being tailored for this market is part of our essence as a company and has shaped our thinking process from the very start.

Esports was once an unfamiliar term in the sports betting industry, but today, many industry commentators believe this sector will soon overtake some of the more traditional sports betting markets. What impact has this rise in popularity had on the barriers to entry?

In my opinion, entering the esports betting market is no more complex or difficult than it would be to enter the traditional sports betting market. The only thing that has changed over time is the amount of exposure this sector is getting.

Previously, most in the market were not aware of the potential esports had, but now it’s harder to not see its potential with so many success stories in industry. This has provided the mainstream market with a better understanding and vision of how it works and in fact, how similar it is to traditional sports book operations.

We work with leading operators such as Betcris and Entain Australia. They are a brilliant example of how simple it can be to launch a successful esports product, coming from an originally sportsbook orientated background. There is of course still work to do in order to understand certain market specifics, but this won’t take much effort compared to how it used to be.

There will always be some key differences to take into account but teaming up with the right partner is the best way to tackle them. The gap between the two worlds is shrinking every day and we’re excited to see how the relationship between them will continue to merge and evolve going forward.

Games such CS:GO and DOTA2, amongst others, are household names in the gaming world and titles that most would be familiar with. Are there any other titles up and coming that are gaining traction within the community? How can an operator best choose the right game portfolio to offer their customers?

Similar to sportsbook, there is a ‘Big Three’ in regard to the most popular games. They are, as mentioned; DOTA2, CS:GO and League of Legends.

Beyond this, there are the ‘Long Tail’ games –around 20 games outside of the ‘Big Three’ that make up the rest of the professional esports scene whose popularities differ significantly depending on market geographies.

In Asia, games such as PUBG and King of Glory are very popular, with the latter boasting over 100 million daily active players in China. In Europe, however, those games are almost non-existent in terms of betting and viewing activity.

Another game that is really growing in popularity is Rocket League. This game is particularly noteworthy because it’s essentially just cars playing football. This makes it very easy to watch and understand for traditional sportsbook bettors – providing excellent cross-selling opportunities.

Additionally, Rocket League has recently been acquired by game publishing giant Epic Games, who also own the most played game in the world, Fortnite. This acquisition is a strong indicator for the game and professional Rocket League’s future growth.

Valorant is another title outside of the ‘Big Three’ that we’re excited about. It’s owned by Riot Games, who also created League of Legends and it’s very popular in Europe, North America and Latin America.

It is a very similar game to its publisher counterpart League of Legends: It’s based on an already proven, successful game format but with its own identity and buzzing community, waiting to be tapped into. This game has performed extremely well recently, beating most other esports titles in terms of betting revenue apart from the ‘Big Three’ after just three months of competitive play.

Games such as Rocket League and Call of Duty are unique in the fact that they are popular all over the world and not restricted to any one region. But most of the other ‘Long Tail’ games are geo-specific just like sports – where something like cricket is super popular in Australia or the West Indies but completely non-existent in France.

How do you choose which matches or leagues you service? Is there value in offering both mainstream and niche gaming titles? Is there a perfect portfolio mix?

Naturally, our customers would like to have as many betting opportunities as possible, enabling them to have 24 hour market coverage. The more types of live action an operator has available, the more types of customer they will be able to attract. So, in this sense, the more the merrier!

However, not every match or tournament can be covered because of our duty to protect our customers from any integrity risks. Smaller and lesser-known competitions can be difficult to track because less data is available – these are the types of market we tend to stay clear of.

As a company, it is our role to offer everything that is safe and mitigate our customers’ exposure to risk, anything that doesn’t meet our criteria is automatically blacklisted.

One of the biggest drivers of esports market growth has been the innovative tech products supporting various aspects of the ecosystem. What are your thoughts on technology such as AI and how can it be best utilised to serve the industry?

Technologies such as AI, blockchain and other buzzword tech products on the market all have their use cases as key optimisation tools, with the ability to make a wide range of system operations cheaper and more powerful.

These innovations are mostly beneficial for improving the operator engine, however, they don’t all revolutionise the customer experience for the fans, which for us, is pivotal.

This is why we at PandaScore fundamentally see ourselves as an AI first company with a major use case in esports. AI is the only one that can really innovate both the background engine and the experience for the fans. It also allows you to create and transform data in less than a second with extremely high accuracy, something which is impossible to do with more traditional models.

Products that are perfectly suited to the esports betting vertical, such as micro-markets, are being enabled by AI technology and providing a solid foundation for market growth in the future.

How can the quality of low latency data help in creating more accurate pricing for matches, helping to maximise margins?

There are various meanings when referring to the quality of data. There’s the depth and quantity of data, which is extremely important to the process. The more data that can be gathered the better, as that helps to create improved predictions, especially when using AI. The depth of data also plays a key role.

More granular points of data help to create context when making decisions like whether a football player has used their left foot or right foot to shoot. This sort of micro level of information helps prevent prediction errors, which has an impact on every aspect of the game.

It’s so important in these cases to have the truest data points available at any given point, which is why we pride ourselves on the robustness of our data APIs. Improved accuracy and speed of predictions through low latency streams provide the operator with an increased leverage that can be converted into an operator’s odds pricing structure and maximise their ability to create a competitive margin.

How can operators best use data to keep players engaged throughout the match?

The sort of engagement features you’d offer to a traditional sports fan is the same you’d offer to an esports fan. When you’re watching a match, esports fans, just like any other punter, want to see the live action and be able to feel part of it.

Esports fans are typically very data driven. They are used to playing with complex scoring systems and are naturally very interested in statistics. This can be leveraged by operators through the use of features such as our widgets product. We offer both pre-match and live widgets that enable players and fans to have more information and context on what’s happening.

It also has a great use for the more casual fans who may be more used to sportsbooks and aren’t very clued up on esports. Having widgets gives them more contextual data that will make it easier for them to understand what’s going on and what betting opportunities are available at any given moment.

Even in situations when the punter doesn’t understand everything that is going on within a match, there are still ways to keep them engaged depending on what data you present.

Easy to understand metrics such as which team has more kills or which team has sustained the most damage are prime examples of relatively simple to understand betting metrics. This empowers esports viewers of all levels to easily find betting opportunities that suit them, continuing to create engaging experiences for the entire cross section of the esports.

How important a role does latency play in shaping an operators esports offering?

Latency in the esports industry has always been a pivotal aspect to the gaming experience that we’re continually trying to improve. We’re operating in an environment where just a few milliseconds can be the difference between a good and bad gaming experience, or the difference between winning and losing big money.

Lower latency, also known as ping, is needed to maintain the smooth gameplay and user experience we all want without any lag. Online gaming customers are twice as likely to abandon a game when they experience a network delay of 500 additional milliseconds. Especially games where timing is crucial like first person shooters and racing games.

In short, time lag from high latency makes gaming and video streaming far less enjoyable. Anything under 100ms is acceptable for gaming, with 20ms to 40ms range is considered optimal.

Due to the laws of physics, latency can never truly be extracted from the value chain and will most likely remain a contentious aspect of in-sports betting well into the future. Online operators are under competitive pressure to provide live video feeds from major events at as low latency as possible.

Unfortunately, anyone waiting to view a stream before placing a bet will always be at a disadvantage compared with someone at the actual event who can hit the button vital seconds earlier, another synergy closely shared with sportsbook products.

However, we at PandaScore have a very strong appetite for research and we’re making improvements to our products constantly, keeping us ahead of the curve and ensuring the full benefits of our technology can be leveraged by our customers.

The integrity of esports has, at times, been called in to question. What role does a robust data feed play in helping operators gain player trust and implement effective compliance and player protection strategies?

Similar to a lot of other mainstream sports, esports have struggled with integrity issues at times and there will always be some challenges with this, no matter what sector you’re in.

At PandaScore, we don’t want to over or underestimate the integrity challenges, so we let the data do the talking. With access to an abundance of match and player related data, we can more accurately gauge how much of a problem integrity is in different areas of the esports ecosystem.

Having the best data feed possible is critical because then you can compare gaming activity across the industry, games, teams and tournaments. This further empowers operators and industry stakeholders to observe and understand trends in activity, maximise the opportunity to identify when something is out of place and secure the future of this fast developing market.