Spend an afternoon at a Top 8 Finals of any fighting game tournament, and you will find there is a robust side-betting culture in esports. Pseudo-gambling activities such as "skin wagers" in Counter-Strike have been a part of esports culture from the beginning, and fringe sites such as XLBet have included StarCraft games next to MLB games.

But widespread casual betting like there is on traditional sports hasn't come to esports yet. That could all change with the recent US Supreme Court decision overturning America's ban on sports gambling - New Jersey's bizarre ban on esports betting notwithstanding.

On 14 May 2018, when the US Supreme Court overturned the ban on sports betting, New Jersey legislators hurried to update the state's 2014 sports betting law. Back in 2014, Jersey lawmakers had passed a law permitting sports betting at casinos and racetracks, but the law couldn't go into effect until the Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA).

Ever since the Supreme Court decision, New Jersey has rushed to put together an updated sports betting bill, and over the course of their deliberations, state legislators added in a ban on esports betting.

The first few months of Overwatch League's inaugural season have already resulted in unexpected upsets, emerging tactics, and drama between players that has resulted in pros getting fined, benched, or released from teams. That stuff isn't just fun to follow and grist for the content mines: it's moving betting lines.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skin gambling streamer James "Phantoml0rd" Varga has filed a lawsuit against streaming platform Twitch for banning him two years ago, saying Twitch breached its contract by improperly suspending him.