SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
International betting operator Parimatch strengthened its commitment to esports after it teamed up with ESforce Holding to host the Dota2 Parimatch League Season 1.
The tournament, which had a prize pool of $75,000, attracted over 1,000 spectators to the Yota Arena in Moscow. It marked the first time that a betting operator had organised its own esports competition.
Stepan Shulga, Head of esports at Parimatch commented; “We managed to create a unique Russian-language league for players, which has become an excellent base for rivalry in the CIS region. I hope that our tournament has pleased the esports community and will further develop the Russian-speaking scene of Dota 2.
In the competition’s inaugural season, broadcasts of the tournament have accrued over 6 million views across its Twitch platform, with the average number of viewers for the league reaching 36,000.
The finals of the Parimatch Leagues saw a number of CIS esports teams compete against one another, and included Virtus.Pro, HellRaisers, Team Spirit and jfshfh178 of which Virtus.Pro took the $40,000 winning prize.
Maxim Maslov, Epic Esports Events CEO, added: “We saw a very impressive level of play in the first season. We are sure that the fans were entertained. We want to develop the Dota 2 community throughout the CIS, and League Parimatch helps us a lot in this.
“In addition, we strive to give talented players the opportunity to develop – and we believe in the next season we will see new future stars.”
Parimatch plans to continue to support esports by confirming plans to develop its own esports league, with a prize pool of $100,000.
Shulga continued: “We are excited to announce the second season of Parimatch League, where the best teams from the CIS region will now fight for a $100,000 prize pool. It will be worth following.”
