Esports Industry Victimized by Coronavirus

The deadly coronavirus continues to spread across the globe, infecting thousands of people and affecting various sectors including the billion-dollar esports industry.

Organizers, players, and fans alike must accept the sad fact that there may be no more live esports tournaments and competitions until the threat of the new coronavirus officially known as COVID-19 dies down.

At present, several local organizers have already made the difficult decision of postponing or completely cancelling selected esports events, citing travel restrictions and the risks involved in being in large crowds as the main reasons. Add the fact that many countries and cities implement enforced quarantine during the outbreak.

League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds are some of the esports games that absorbed the huge blow amid the growing health emergency worldwide.

League of Legends Pro League, which began its season on 13 January in China, was forced to have its matches postponed. It was only recently when LPL announced that the matches would resume but with a different setup. For one, all players were required to undergo the 14-day quarantine period. But the major step LPL took is that all matches would be played online instead of in a large stadium in front of thousands of esports fans.

Not all competitions, however, have the same fate as with LPL. Masters Championship of IEM Katowice in Poland, for example, had to be cancelled on the day itself, so were the matches for the Overwatch League that was supposed to run from February to March.

In South Korea where a massive outbreak recently happened, the esports community had to bear with the fact that League of Legends Champions Korea would no longer run as was announced. The same fate happened to PUBG LAN 2020 in Berlin, which was supposed to take place in April this year.

Many more esports events were affected, like the League of Legends Pro League, the CrossFire finals in China, and the World Electronic Sports Games Asia Pacific finals.

The series of event cancellations and delays, however, do not just affect the players, fans, and organizers because even esports betting platforms and bettors online suffer, too.

Abhijit Pattanaik, Co-Founder & Chief Gaming Officer of Playtonia told BestBitcoinCasino.com:

“Mobile esports are going bigger just as the regular esports day by day and especially now at this pandemic situation due to COVID as increased the mobile gaming community in terms of numbers and so the mobile esports are happening almost everywhere now.”

As there are no esports events, there are also no matches sports bettors can wager on. This means a major profit loss for crypto-friendly esports betting sites like Arcanebet and Stake as esports is a big market. The situation for online casinos, however, is different as the new coronavirus outbreak brings more to players to online casinos.

Now, the answer to the question as to when will the esports industry recover remains unknown. Meanwhile, sports bettors looking for some sports action can wager on virtual sports as alternative amid the coronavirus outbreak. But after a long lockdown period, gamblers have reportedly began coming back to Las Vegas casinos.

How do you feel about the postponed or cancelled esports tournaments? Follow Bitcoin Casino on Twitter for the latest news and developments in crypto and blockchain gaming.