New Jersey May Allow Pro Esports Players to Bet on Themselves

Although betting on esports contests is perfectly legal in the state of New Jersey, a new change is now in the air. A new bill sponsored by Assemblyman William F. Moen Jr. Is looking to allow players who compete in video games, or esports professionals, to wager on their performance.

Esports Athletes May Soon Be Able to Wager on Themselves

The premise would be unthinkable in any professional sport or college-level competition, and have seen many players go down over such violations. However, there may be a way forward for esports athletes to do just that, as outlined in the new bill.

With the bill out of an Assembly committee last week, it is set to get a full Assembly consideration. The bill wants to break away from the current way of doing business when it comes to esports betting.

The bill proposes to create two separate esports-only gaming skins that will try to focus a company’s operations on the vertical individually. The ability to bet on one’s own game is not entirely novel nor is it counter-intuitive to the integrity of esports.

Sportsbooks may offer odds for certain players to achieve a certain milestone, which are performance-based. In other words, underperforming would not be an option in such instances, although fears persist about whether players won’t simply allow others to bet on them.

The idea is to have only professional players gamble, which means that they would be incentivized to win and would hardly find a better player in their field who is not a rival and who would profiteer from playing from their account. Besides, most of these bets if not all will be placed on live events which can be verified.

Esports betting is a growing market in the United States. New Jersey just so happens to be on the frontline with the Garden State, one of the fastest-growing esports ecosystems in the country.  

New Jersey Embracing the Esports Bonanza in New Ways

To tap into this trend, the bill suggests allowing New Jersey to accept bets on video games that take place in physical facilities outside the state. At the same time, the state’s universities have already been issuing degrees to esports professionals who work both as professional gamers, but also as one of the many jobs associated with this burgeoning market.

New Jersey has been hardly the only state to embrace esports innovation, however. Florida’s Hard Rock Bet has also expanded its offer to include esports wagers, as the state also enjoys strong support for the innovative vertical.