PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — New Jersey has become the first state to allow betting on professional esports games.
On Tuesday, New Jersey opened betting on video games like League of Legends and Counterstrike.
"Within one minute of launch we started having people sign up, so we’re pretty encouraged by that," said Grant Johnson, the CEO of Esports Entertainment Group.
His company got the green light from the state earlier this week to launch a five-day soft play period for their esports betting site vie.gg.
"We have a controlled launch to make sure the platform holds up to use, and the logs are properly produced, and the know-your-client and age verification works properly," said Johnson. "Then we get the approval to operate."
Johnson said that when it comes to age verification, they are implementing special safeguards to make sure their clients are at least 21 years old.
"There are very strict and stringent age verification protocols," said Johnson.
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"People have to produce a picture ID. It has to match their address."
He believes the sky is the limit for this cross-section of two industries that rake in billions of dollars.
"By the time it’s a mature market, we believe it will be a $50 billion industry," Johnson added.
He said they plan on adding more games, and more ways to bet, in the near future.
