Aussie land casino company to host eSports event

Australian land casino operator Crown Resorts is showing interest in the booming eSports vertical, announcing this week that its Melbourne venue is to host a Call of Duty tournament on April 9 and 10.

This is the casino company’s second excursion into the eSports field following the Crown Invitational, which matched Aussie teams against those from Europe and the United States last year (see previous report).

The tournament next month will carry a guaranteed A$70,000 first prize put up by Crown.

There is evidence of growing interest in Australia in eSports contests, with TopBetta recently announcing the launch of a new dedicated division titled GameBetta, headed by eSport entrepreneur Randall Noble, and the introduction of Youtube Gaming early March.

A study by research company Newzoo in January this year predicted that the eSports market internationally will grow 43 percent this year to US$463 million.

Related and similar