Tabcorp, best known in Australia for running TAB, has partnered with US gambling start-up Unikrn and is now allowing its members to bet on eSports. Through its Luxbet website, you can now bet on the outcome of League of Legends and Counter-Strike tournaments.
“eSports are a major sport,” said Tabcorp chief executive David Attenborough, speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald.
To be perfectly honest, I’m surprised its taken this long for Tabcorp to get on board with gambling on eSports.
An eSports tab has already been implemented on the Luxbet website, and is currently featured on the front page of the site. It looks as if Tabcorp is really looking to go big with eSports gambling. They have concerns regarding corruption at the highest level — we’ve seen fixing controversies dominate headlines, most recently with Counter-Strike. Attenborough told the Sydney Morning Herald that cutting-edge, existing technology would be used to monitor strange results. “Every single move is captured,” he said.
With this, and Heroes of the Storm featuring on ESPN 2. eSports is seriously making a play for the mainstream.
If problem gambling is affecting you or someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Tabcorp offers odds on online games League of Legends and Counter-Strike [SMH]
Comments
23 responses to “TAB Allowing Users To Gamble On Counter-Strike And League Of Legends”
“eSports are a major sport,” said Tabcorp chief executive David Attenborough,”
I’ll bet he said it as a wild Counter-Strike player frolicked in some de_woodlands
Here in oz, we really like to gamble, every sports program has been sponsored by gambling companies & i am certain a certain mr xeno, an anti gambling senator, will make his voice heard & it will be on kotaku, where he will argue against tab being involved in a sport that has been riddled by corruption, so dear ozzies, stop sponsoring gambling
There will always be gambling. I think it’s better to at-least gamble with a Australian company rather than a international company.
Seriously, like there isn’t enough shit to gamble on already. E.g. Baby names for william and kate.
So stupid and I hope this fails after the first few games.
You must be fun at parties.
Ill take that action, $10 says hes pretty fun once he gets tipsy
$20 says he’s any angry drunk. “What are you lookin at?”
Or the one’s that get all depressed and go home early to watch re-runs of Friends on VHS
Yeah life of the party. Can’t imagine how fun your parties must be where you enjoy betting on royal baby names.
I don’t mind slapping an easy $20 on the pokies every now and again, but Australia is already facing massive gambling issues as it is. To quote wikipedia, “on a per capita basis, Australia had roughly five times as many gaming machines as the United States.”.
Gambling ads are regularly spammed on TV and now they are honing in on the younger market even more.
I can see the appeal for Tabcorp to focus on online gaming as it’s just another event, but I personally think we have enough gambling options atm.
Quoted text: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slot_machines_by_country
Who care’s I like to gamble once and a while, I don’t consider myself addicted it’s just a bit of fun.
Just because some people have bad self control does not mean that they should ruin it for the rest of us. Most of the time people “bet” on thing between mates, so I don’t see what the fuss is all about.
Basically, If you don’t like it don’t do it. _ Don’t ruin it for others.
I agree with you. Gambling is everywhere and it is depressing.
Realistically though, investing is gambling. Insurance is gambling. Choosing whether or not to run that amber light is gambling, it’s just all portrayed differently. You can’t live without gambling.
Yeah….na.
I’ve been betting on eSports for over a year. It won’t fail. They aren’t “honing in on a younger audience”. Every sport that is shown on Australian TV has some form of gambling advert placed either on field or as a paid television ad. This isn’t the catalyst for a young generation having gambling issues, that was NRL/AFL/Tennis/Golf/etc/etc.
The biggest issue is going to be how to regulate the sports, as eSports are notoriously under matured. See the ROX “322” match fixing in Dota, or the iBUYPOWER match fixing in CS. The problem with eSports is that it is much harder to prove a team was involved in matchfixing as it’s unclear if players are throwing the match intentionally.
I am certainly grateful that e-sports are becoming mainstream. I’m sure that many people here will have experienced some of the stigma and even disdain from others that has previously come from having gaming as a primary hobby. However, I’m not happy about gambling becoming mainstream. It feels like it’s getting more and more difficult to have a discussion about any competitive event without also having gambling, or mention of the odds, enter the equation. I absolutely support the rights of people to use their money to bet on whatever they like but I feel it is too pervasive.
Given the recent happenings regarding hacking and cheaters, I’d be pretty reluctant to put money anywhere near CS.
It makes perfect sense. I hate to gamble and hate that this new initiative is clearly aimed at the younger demographic; but I’m actually surprised that it hasn’t happened earlier.
Get ’em young, eh? PrIcks.
WOOT! Match fixin!
eSports has a long history of match fixing already. The Starcraft scene in Korea was almost destroyed because of a match fixing scandal. 322 is a meme in the Dota scene because of another one. A SE Asian team fell apart because of match fixing.
The lack of a strong governing body for most eSports combined with a fairly unregulated gambling scene (dodgy Russian sites compared to TAB) has not been healthy.
This looks like a pretty token effort from TAB but it might be the start of legitimising eSports gambling without the constant scandal. I’d prefer if there wasn’t gambling involved at all but that’s another point entirely.
When can I expect Troy Baker to show up in a Bet 365 ad?
That would be brilliant if they have him play a dozen of his famous characters all in one ad!
match fixing and drug testing, ohhhh its like they are lil horses now
This is not a good thing.
I used to be proud that you never saw people my age inside a TAB, it was always sad looking old men, but I guess that was misleading because like arcades shutting down they didn’t kill video games they just moved them into the home and similarly the betting agency just moved from the local shopping strip to your phone.
One thousand times this. The normalization of gambling in Australian culture sickens me. It destroys peoples lives and families and the negative effects of it are felt far more by vulnerable people: the young, the old and recent immigrants, yet we are constantly told to celebrate it.
That are state and federal governments are so complicit in this is even more concerning.
And me about to launch a friend betting app for Android. I did have an interview with Tabcorp a few months ago, hope I didnt mention that I was including gaming as a betting type in my app.
betswithfriends.co if anyone is wondering (just browsing on here while I wait for a copy I can release actually so timing).
But I’ve found Fifa wagering and twitch to be much bigger and ongoing than single tournaments.
Mind you I am supporting naming your own stakes, not all bets have to be about money. Tab probably isnt interested in that 😛