Magic: The Gathering (MTG) has changed dramatically since it was created back in 1993, evolving from a niche tabletop card game into a global phenomenon with a thriving competitive scene. The strategic collectible card game, which sees players build decks and battle using spells, creatures, and magical abilities, has a player base of millions.
It is also played at professional tournaments, with players battling it out for huge prize pots in front of auditoriums filled with spectators. Outside of the packed halls and stands, hundreds of thousands also tune in to online streams to watch the action unfold.
With each passing year, the game continues to grow in popularity. It’s only natural, then, considering MTG’s popularity and the number of people who tune in to watch tournaments, that people want to bet on it.
To find out whether that’s possible and also find out a little bit more about the current MTG landscape, read on…
MTG: The Current Betting Options
It is one of the widely recognised truths of humanity that if there is a competition, you can bet on it. Earlier this year, when the Vatican was deciding on who would become the next Pope, a betting market opened up on it, so it’s no surprise that you can bet on MTG tournaments.
Unfortunately, though, it’s a little trickier than betting on whether there’s going to be a white Christmas or on who the next Prime Minister will be, as only a handful of bookmakers currently carry odds on it.
That’s because bookmakers and wagering sites have to employ people who are experts on a given sport or competition to work out the odds, and they only do that when there is enough demand to do so.
Whilst MTG is a hugely popular card game, it’s nowhere near as popular as football, cricket or even the debate about the new Pope, which is why it’s only specialist online wagering sites that focus on eSports that currently carry odds on MTG.
Top Tip: If you are planning to make a wager on MTG, or anything else for that matter, make sure to shop around for online bonuses first!
(How to play MTG)
The Future of MTG Gambling: Will More Sportsbooks Start to Offer Odds?
Not unless it becomes really, really popular. Currently, MTG is popular for a strategic card game, but as mentioned above, it pales in comparison to the popularity of mainstream sports, and even some of the lesser-watched mainstream sports.
To get some of the big names in the industry interested in offering odds on MTG, it would need to become bigger than any eSports currently on the market. That means it surpasses the likes of DOTA and League of Legends in playing and viewing numbers.
There’s also a really big factor that goes against MTG becoming a major betting market, a factor that, coincidentally, makes it such a good game to play and watch – it can be read.
Sports Betting is a Secret Language
There’s no way to accurately predict the outcome of every sporting fixture on a consistent basis. This is good for the bookmakers as it makes their job a lot easier. If they get the odds right on a consistent basis and entice enough customers in, they should always make a profit.
There is a balance, though, as the favourites sometimes lose. Manchester United can get beaten by Grimsby, for example, despite being three leagues above them, and it’s that possibility of an upset that makes football an enticing sport to watch and an enticing sport to bet on.
(An upset like this wouldn’t have happened in the world of MTG.)
In MTG, though, if two players came up against one another with such a difference in experience and stature, the better player would win 100 times out of 100. That’s because MTG is a strategy game that can be learned and mastered, and that’s no fun for gamblers.
It’s no fun for the bookmakers either, as they would have to make the odds of the more experienced player so close to equal that no one would ever bother placing a bet.
MTG as Advertising
In business terms, then, offering odds on MTG is something that is either likely to run at a loss or make such a marginal profit that it is barely noticed. Which means the only way that it is going to be adopted by more mainstream gambling companies is if the demographic rises to such a level that offering odds on it becomes a valuable advertising exercise.
Currently, that’s something worth doing for specialist companies that focus on eSports, but it’s unlikely to be something that larger providers do for the foreseeable future.
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