Competitive gaming has become all the rage in recent years. Although the history of eSports can be traced back to the 1970s, it’s generally accepted that the first recognised gaming competition took place in 1980. The event was held in the US and the game of choice was Space Invaders. 10,000 people entered and the top four from four regional competitions made it through to the final in New York. The winner was crowned Space Invaders champion and, with that, a new wrinkle to the fabric of gaming was made.
Gaming Has Always Been Competitive
The allure of competing for prizes quickly took hold. Computer game manufacturers got behind the idea because sales spiked when games were used for competitions. Despite the initial popularity of competitive gaming, it would take until the noughties for it to become an industry in its own right. According to the Global Esports Market Report, industry revenue in 2022 was $1.39 billion. As often happens when an industry grows, innovations occur, and things evolve.
Indeed, the notion of competitive gaming now extends to all types of games. Casino operators, such as Paddy Power, host their own tournaments using games like Blue Wizard. How is that possible when all online slots are different? That’s a good question. eSports tournaments are all based around one game, such as DOTA 2. In the casino gaming world, slots have their own nuances in terms of aesthetics, mechanics and payouts.
Looking at Blue Wizard specifically, it has five reels, 30 paylines and fixed payouts worth 50X. These qualities make it different from other slots available on the site. Of course, this means it can be played in isolation, much like any other type of game.
When you look at the theoretical payout rate (known as the RTP), you can start to group slots according to their potential. Indeed, although slots can be different in many ways, their foundation (i.e. their payout potential) can be the game. This is what makes slot tournaments possible.
Finding Ways to Make Casino Games Competitive
The RTP for Blue Wizard is 96.50%. Therefore, what casino operators can do is group together slots with the same RTP and use them for a tournament. Now it doesn’t matter which slot/s entrants play. Everyone has the same theoretical chance of winning.
In other words, it’s an even playing field. The only thing that separates players is the number of times they spin and how often variance swings in their favour i.e. how many times they win. Each win is worth a certain number of points and, just like that, you’ve created a tournament.
The concept of competitive casino gaming might have evolved naturally as the online gambling industry grew. Indeed, few would have predicted the ability to use random number generators to replicate casino games would take hold like it did.
Today, online casino gaming is worth more than $63 billion according to a report by Grand View Research. That level of growth inevitably opens the door to new ideas. And, according to Statista, it will be worth $114 billion by 2028.
However, what casino operators have done is take inspiration from other parts of the industry. This has led to the creation of slots tournaments. In turn, that’s made the competitive gaming scene even more diverse.
Put simply, we’ve come a long way since the 1970s. From the North-East Esports Festival and ESL ONE CS:GO to slots tournaments, competitive gaming is more diverse, entertaining and competitive than ever.