EXCLUSIVE: Rivalry CEO On The Future Of Sports Betting For Younger Generations

Sports betting companies are in the midst of a fierce customer acquisition battle in which gaming companies aim to take market share as legalization expands across the United States. Rivalry Corp RVLCF is taking a different approach by focusing on esports.

"We see esports as kind of like the sport of the internet," Rivalry co-founder and CEO Steven Salz said Monday on "Benzinga Live."

What To Know: For people under the age of 30, esports are more popular than traditional sports in most cases, according to Salz. That age group is the market that Rivalry is targeting.

"People under the age of 30 [are] like 40% of the global population now. Many of them are coming into spending power and starting to get into all of these consumer experiences," he said.

The Rivalry CEO compared what the company is doing for younger generations in gaming to what Robinhood Markets Inc HOOD is doing for the younger investing community. 

"We just see it as this like an inevitable generational tidal wave that's coming in just given like the sheer volume of the demographic, the interest in gaming or competitive gaming and esports, so it's like an interesting time, but it's definitely still a little early," he explained. 

The COVID-19 pandemic helped to push adoption along, Salz noted.

"The viewership of esports and the interest in sports betting on esports like skyrocketed," he said. "We saw about six months of growth in 30 days at the outset of COVID because you had traditional sports shut down."

Now, Salz expects time to be the catalyst for the industry moving forward. 

"It's compounding, and it's snowballing, so we don't think you have to wait like five years, but it is still just going to take time for the demographic to mature," he said.

See the full interview with Salz here:

Photo: Sam Churchill from Flickr.