Toronto-based sports betting and media company Rivalry Corp. is launching betting on mobile esports, the business announced on Wednesday. The Canadian operator is now among the first to offer wagering on what has become one of the fastest-growing esports segments.
Mobile esports has now been added as an option on the company’s sportsbook product. Customers can begin wagering on competitive esports played on mobile devices through a comprehensive offering of titles.
The list of currently available betting games includes Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, League of Legends Wild Rift, Call of Duty Mobile, PUBG Mobile, and Free Fire. Additional titles are set to be introduced “in the future.”
“Mobile gaming is soaring in popularity around the world, and we believe mobile esports titles will be among the most played, viewed, and bet on within the coming years,” said Steven Salz, Co-Founder and CEO of Rivalry.
The executive explains that while not everyone has a desktop computer capable of playing top games, or a home console, “nearly everyone now” has a mobile phone, which makes the global ecosystem for mobile gaming “incredibly deep and exciting.” The company describes the future opportunities for this platform as “massive.”
Rivalry lists a series of developments as signaling the continued growth of mobile esports, including more than 2.2 billion active mobile gamers worldwide, with some estimates predicting that half the world’s population will play mobile games by 2025.
Additionally, the most popular mobile games are now achieving highly-remarkable participation levels. For instance, popular battle royale game Free Fire set in August 2021 a new record with over 150 million daily active users globally.
Excited to launch one of the most comprehensive mobile esports offerings globally at $RVLY. The player numbers are staggering and we believe mobile will crack the top 5 most bet on and watched esports in the coming years 📱📈https://t.co/P60QuQUuG4 pic.twitter.com/EPlmsVX4qa
— Steven Salz (@StevenSalz) March 23, 2022
But mobile gaming also offers an exciting opportunity in markets such as India, Southeast Asia and Latin America, where affordability may be a bigger concern. All these markets have experienced above-average growth: for example, Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) saw 50 million downloads in its first month of release.
Rivalry plans to gain a presence in a new ecosystem in which gaming developers devote increasing resources to mobile titles and new mobile esports tournaments are being launched, similar to the pattern seen several years earlier in the broader esports space.
“Rivalry aims to innovate by bringing new products to market in advance of the traditional online betting providers. This approach has helped us establish the highest brand engagement among the Gen Z and younger Millennial demographic,” Salz added.
Rivalry’s innovation-first approach led the company to establish a new category called Massively Multiplayer Online Gambling Games last year through the launch of its proprietary cyberpunk-themed Rushlane online casino game.
In an exclusive interview with Yogonet last month, Salz discussed the metaverse and the opportunities it brings to gaming operators. “The metaverse will change gambling from highly transactional and solitary to more entertainment-based and social,” the Rivalry CEO described.
“We think average transaction sizes will go down but the frequency will go up,” Salz said. “The stigma that still exists around it will go down in our view as a result. It will be viewed as more normal course entertainment behavior.”
