With betting becoming legal in more-and-more states in the US, it's no surprise to see an increase in the amount of patents being filed towards betting platforms and systems for almost everything that can be bet on. Similar to traditional sports betting, it's not very surprising to see companies looking to capitalize on the competitive nature of competitive gaming given the perfect combination of luck and skill that goes into selecting the winning team. One thing that is more interesting is the companies that are seen in sports betting and esports or more particularly the lack of overlap between the two industries.
The eSports betting patent space is dominated by Arrow Gaming and Skillz Inc. with the companies being assigned 45 and 15 patent assets in the eSports Patent Forecast® respectively as of September, 2021. The next highest assignee, Everi Games, is quite a bit behind both of the companies with a total of 7 patent assets. The rest of the category consists of smaller companies ranging from 1-5 total patent assets in the space. Surprisingly, it does not appear that the leaders in the much more developed sports betting world such as Draftkings, BetMGM, and Fanduel have taken interest in the eSports patent space with the companies not showing up in the sector.
With the lack of activity from larger, cash-strapped companies, there is plenty of opportunity for smaller companies to develop strategic portfolios relating to eSports betting before the industry explodes to likely overtake its physical sports counterpart. Stay up to date with the ever changing eSports patent space by following the eSports Patent Forecast®!
