The advent of online gaming as a sportsbetting franchise is one that isn’t new and, in many ways, has always been there. From virtual gaming to pre-game betting, much of the money that has been staked on sporting events over the course of the last century has been done so in a world of imagined sporting acts, before the first horse has broken the tape or the first football has been kicked.

In modern society, Esports bettors were, for years, having to push for sportsbetting on their particular favourite game to be acceptable within the traditional hubs of sportsbetting. They don’t get bigger in that sense than Las Vegas, which has been something of a ghost town recently rather than the neon-lit gamblers’ paradise that it has been known for over many years.

Last week’s manic demand that casinos need to reopen because the COVID-19 restrictions are ‘killing’ the industry by the Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman sparked much discussion and comes at a time when many Americans are making similar demands for the country to reopen, despite rapidly rising numbers of the population Stateside being infected with Coronavirus and almost a quarter of the current death toll falling victim to the disease in the U.S.A.

While casinos look destined to remain closed for the foreseeable future, throwing the idea of the World Series of Poker and other forthcoming festivals into extreme doubt at the very least, Las Vegas has approved four new Esports games for sportsbetting. Overwatch League, League of Legends European Championship and the North America League of Legends Championship will all be able to be wagered on in Nevada over forthcoming weeks, and as a recent look at Esports betting in the Washington Post surmises, the Nevada Gaming Commission can often “act as a barometer for much of the sportsbetting world”.