PrizePicks, the most important each day fantasy sports activities operator in North America, is launching The Esports Lab to show its customers watch and perceive esports. The one-stop vacation spot for fantasy esports consists of stats, embedded dwell matches and sources to know the foundations of well-liked aggressive titles and the fundamentals of evaluating participant efficiency.
At launch, PrizePicks’ Esports Lab will help Counter-Strike 2, League of Legends and Dota 2. The supplier plans to increase its sources for these titles and add further esports all year long.
“The Esports Lab is truly a first-of-its-kind product innovation,” mentioned Adam Wexler, cofounder and CEO at PrizePicks. “PrizePicks has been an innovator across categories since its inception, investing in areas that our community members love, with esports being at the forefront. I’m excited to see how this new offering builds upon the immense esports growth we’ve experienced to date.”
PrizePicks’ esports historical past
PrizePicks first started exploring alternatives in esports in 2019. The fantasy sports activities operator linked with Hello-Rez Leisure to help Smite as each are based mostly in Atlanta. The corporate ultimately moved onto different video games notably as soon as the pandemic shut down conventional sports activities matches. Even as soon as these sports activities returned, PrizePicks discovered that customers stored partaking with its esports providing.
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“Over the last four years, we found our Millennial and Gen Z audience — while they love
the traditional sports — a huge percentage of them are gamers,” mentioned Adam Boothe, senior director of esports at PrizePicks, in an interview with GamesBeat. “The reason why esports wasn’t as popular is that it can be intimidating for gamers, even if they’re familiar with a game, to know how to engage with fantasy around it.”
Whereas PrizePicks hopes to develop the recognition of esports on its platform, the corporate already has a large viewers for fantasy esports. Over 1 million PrizePicks members have constructed an esports lineup to this point. The truth is, PrizePicks’ complete entry charges from esports grew 110% from 2022 to 2023.
PrizePicks nonetheless skews largely in the direction of fantasy conventional sports activities, nonetheless their relative reputation is rising. Final yr, Counter-Strike ranked fourth in entry charges and lineups amongst all sports activities, solely behind skilled basketball, soccer and baseball. Partially, this is because of esports working for many of the yr, in distinction to the seasonality of conventional sports activities.
Cross-selling area of interest
With The Esports Lab, PrizePicks is working in a novel center floor amongst betting suppliers. Relatively than competing instantly with esports-specific betting and fantasy suppliers, PrizePicks desires to introduce and cross-sell to its conventional fantasy sports activities viewers.
“We’re not trying to be HLTV 2.0. When you come to The Esports Lab, you’ll learn about the basics, how
to watch a stream, even where to find them. One of the most popular questions we get on our socials is ‘where can I watch?’ Even if you’re familiar with Twitch, finding the specific broadcast for a tier two Counter-Strike event can take some time. We are catering to an audience that is tech-comfortable, gaming-comfortable, has sports fandom, likes fantasy, but that esports thing is intimidating,” mentioned Boothe.
To make esports extra accessible, the quantity of knowledge out there is very simplified. Customers draft lineups of at the very least two gamers, predict whether or not every one will over- or underperform PrizePicks’ anticipated efficiency on a specific stat — usually kills. The Esports Lab additionally lists every participant’s hit charge, or the variety of occasions a participant overperformed their projections out of their 5 most up-to-date matches.
The Esports Lab will proceed to iterate on its providing and increase its options based mostly on followers’ use and suggestions. Along with well timed articles about upcoming matches, PrizePicks plans so as to add extra instructional content material to transcend the fundamentals. Some examples embody guides to Counter-Strike 2’s maps and economic system or roles in League of Legends and Dota 2.
Customers can begin studying and constructing lineups on PrizePicks’ Esports Lab right this moment on desktop and cell internet (with plans to launch iOS and Android apps sooner or later).
