Tiidal Gaming’s (TIDL.C) Sportsflare Launches DOTA 2 On Its Platform

Profitable Proposition?

$11.89M Market Capitalization

Tiidal Gaming Group Corp. (TIDL.C) announced today that Sportsflare, the Company’s wholly-owned technology division, has launched the first-of-its-kind player proposition markets for DOTA 2 on its platform. This makes Sportsflare the first odds provider to deliver player proposition markets for DOTA 2, one of the most popular esports titles to date.

“Prop betting has been successful in traditional sports where fans follow players as much as they follow their favorite teams. We believe that the esports industry is no different and by providing player prop wagering for leading esports titles, we will be able to offer esports fans to bet on specific outcomes revolving around the players they follow…,” said Max Polaczuk, Chief Technology Officer of Tiidal Gaming.

Just how big are we talking here? According to Steam Charts, there were 632,007 active players as of 10:00 AM EST. At its all-time peak in March 2016, DOTA 2 saw 1,291,328 active players. With this in mind, DOTA 2 is an immensely popular Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) video game, ranking third just behind games like League of Legends and Valorant. Personally, I am a League of Legends fanboy myself, however, the popularity of DOTA 2 is certainly justified.

The MOBA market as a whole is extremely profitable, with the total revenue of MOBA mobile games exceeding $300 million monthly. That’s just for mobile MOBA games! As for the genre in its entirety, the revenue of MOBA games grew by 43% in 2020. This figure increased 14% on a monthly basis in 2021, reaching over $300 million. In the future, the MOBA industry is expected to exceed $490 million in annual sales by 2025.

With this in mind, the esports market is segmented by game genres such as MOBAs, real-time strategy, first-person shooters, fighting, and sports. Of these genres, the MOBA market was the largest segment of the esports market, accounting for 40.9% of the market in 2020. Moving forward, the MOBA segment is expected to remain the fastest-growing segment, expanding at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.3% from 2020 through 2025.

What Is Player Proposition?

According to Tiidal’s latest news, Sportsflare will launch player proposition markets for DOTA 2 on its platform. As previously mentioned, this makes Sportsflare the first odds provider to deliver player proposition markets for DOTA 2. In fact, DOTA 2 is currently not available on any bookmaker and, to date, there are no platform providers offering DOTA 2 as part of their core product offering.

For context, player proposition markets allow bettors to wager on certain outcomes that are determined by the performance of an individual player during a game. For example, will Luo Feichi, arguably one of the best DOTA 2 mid-lane players, score five kills in a professional match before 20 minutes? In other words, proposition betting proposes a question to bettors, one that may or may not have a direct impact on the final score of a game.

Keep in mind, with its Bet-on-Yourself (BOY) sportsbook, Sportsflare has already lain the foundation for proposition markets. Through BoY, Sportsflare offers cross-platform, high-margin, 24/7 on-demand betting whereby players can bet on themselves for select objectives, similar to player proposition markets.

Aside from BoY, Sportsflare also offers Betbuilder, the first betbuilder in esports enabling same-game parlay betting. The division’s Betbuilder offers the largest coverage of player performance indicators, including the only “most kills” and “K/D” related markets in the world. Furthermore, all player propositions can be combined with any other market.

Currently, Sportsflare’s Betbuilder is available for 96% of professional CS:GO matches, offering four types of player proposition markets for the game. With this in mind, Sportsflare’s new DOTA 2 offering will enable the division to deliver an extensive suite of player proposition markets. According to Sportsflare, Betbuilder is already available for 89% of professional DOTA 2 matches and offers 56 market options for the average DOTA 2 match.

Player Proposition Markets for DOTA 2

Sportsflare’s player proposition markets for DOTA 2 and CS:GO will be charged based on an Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven pricing model to enhance returns on each bet placed. This offering will be provided in pre-match markets and Sportsflare’s esports Betbuilder, which will allow player propositions to be combined with other DOTA 2 proposition bets. DOTA 2 player proposition markets will be available for all sportsbooks that license Sportsflare’s data.

Sportsflare’s player proposition betting options will include player kills over or under on every map. Furthermore, these betting options will be available for Tier 1 DOTA 2 matches within major esports competitions.

“The new player prop markets for Dota 2 give us a first-mover advantage in the esports space as there are currently no sportsbooks or platform providers that offer this product…Moving forward, we will continue to offer additional product offerings that will improve the betting experience and subsequently boost betting activity by a significant margin,” continued Max Polaczuk.

Fixed-odds betting, which includes proposition wagering, held the largest revenue share within the global sports betting industry in 2020, generating more than USD$16.75 billion. Of this market, proposition bets are increasing in popularity within US sportsbooks and Canadian lottery companies, especially since the legalization of single-event sports betting in Canada.