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eSports: Major Upcoming BlizzCon, Fortnite Events

eSports: Major Upcoming BlizzCon, Fortnite Events

Now that we’ve covered some of the basics of eSports betting, let’s take a look at some of the major events to look forward to in 2020 such as Blizzcon:

If you are interested in breaking into the eSports betting world, you first have to know what to keep an eye out for.  Each eSport has its own annual major tournament to crown their respective champions.  A few even have two.  So let’s take a look at the remaining big-ticket events of 2020 and offer up a quick preview to help get you started.

*Note – Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, take these dates with a grain of salt.  It’s likely most if not all of these events will be delayed, but will happen eventually.

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BlizzCon 2020 – November

Blizzard Entertainment, one of the veterans of the PC gaming world, hosts the biggest gaming conference in the world each year.  Running annually since 2005, it is one of the oldest eSports events worldwide and sees a huge number of fans and players in attendance. The 2019 event saw over 40,000 enter the tournament alone, making it one of the largest in the world.

What makes BlizzCon unique is that it features a number of games and not just a single title. Participants can compete in World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone, and Starcraft II tournaments all at the same event.

BlizzCon is popular enough to tempt fans worldwide to attend.  Despite tickets starting at $200 and topping out at $800, this event is full each and every year.  Attendants enjoy free gifts, such as beta keys to test new games, virtual items and apparel from their favorite game dev. Virtual tickets can also be purchased for those who want to live stream events in lieu of attending.

For sports betting, this event is an ideal situation.  It gives you the opportunity to wager on a ton of different matchups, spanning multiple games and genres all in the same weekend.

FIFA eWorld Cup – August

The FIFA eWorld Cup is exactly what it sounds like.  It is the virtual soccer players equivalent to the actual World Cup tournament.  At the eWorld Cup, the 32 players to qualify to go head to head for the title and a huge cash prize.

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One thing that makes this event unique is the sheer fact that anyone can participate.

While this process takes months and months to complete, eventually the millions of players are ground down to those 32 invitees who make the final tournament.  Even the Guinness Book of World Records recognizes the FIFA eWorld Cup as the largest tournament in the world based on players.

One thing that makes this tournament particularly fun is the near-infinite number of games to wager on.  With the action taking place all the time, you will easily find something to wager on when it comes to the eWorld Cup.

Fortnite World Cup 2020 – Date TBD

Fortnite has grown quickly from a new title to one of the most popular games in history.  Considering their fanbase, it’s no surprise that the World Championship draws massive worldwide attention. Along with the big audiences come huge payouts for the winners.  The 2019 tournament winners took home more than $30M in cash and prizes while more than a million people watched live.

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2020 is the first year the new version of the game will see their championship for the inaugural year.  Epic Games has expressed their intention to go bigger in every way this year. Bigger crowds, bigger live streaming, and of course, bigger prizes.  While ‘The International’ might be bigger, the Fortnite World Cup will give fans a bigger and better tournament than we’ve seen from Epic before.

The International 2020 – August 18th – 23rd 2020

Aside from the Fornite World Cup, this is the biggest and most lucrative tournament around.  Up intl 2019, they held the official record for biggest tourney and look to recapture that title in 2020 from Epic.

In 2019, more than $25M in total prizes were awarded by Valve to the winners of The International in Shanghai.  This year’s event will take place in Stockholm.

This year, The International will host 18 teams to compete.  12 of those teams earned their spots based on their accumulated points during the season while the remaining six won qualifying tournaments.

One unique feature for this year’s event is a sort of ‘built-in betting’ platform from Valve themselves.

It will allow players to predict the outcome of each game and earn in-game rewards for the right answers.  While this is not gambling in the sense that players have to put up money to win, it still looks suspiciously close to gambling to us.

With a projected $35M prize pool, this year’s International could be the biggest eSports tournament in history and will make for a great online gambling opportunity come August.

Matt De Saro is a journalist and media personality specializing in sport, specifically sports betting. He has hosted podcasts and web shows since 2014 which aim to educate and inform sports bettors worldwide. Matt has created content, both written & media, for the likes of Fansided, Forbes, Sportsbook Review & YouWager. With a background in statistical analysis and a love of everything sports, he takes an outside the box approach to reporting on the sports betting industry.

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