There is no doubt that eSports is a gigantic industry that is starting to rival regular sports in terms of participation and prize pools. And that is continuing to be the case as the 2016 Halo World Championship will feature a US$2.5 million prize pool - the largest-ever for a console game.
The 2016 Halo World Championship will see 16 teams fight it out for a piece of eSports history this March 18-20 in Hollywood, California.
The event was originally announced with a US$1 million guaranteed prize pool, which then increased with a crowd-funded based in-house REQ system add-on purchases when users from all around the world played Halo 5: Guardians.
The top 8 places in the 2016 Halo World Championship will finish in the money, with the eventual winner taking home a very large US$1 million.
The landmark eSports event will play host to teams from five continents, will be streamed live on Twitch and will be the largest console-based tournament in history and the 7th largest eSports event overall.
Over the last few years it has been PC game DOTA 2 that has cornered the eSports market in terms of total prize pools. In 2015 the DOTA 2 'International' featured a ridiculous prize pool of US$18,429,613. To put that number into perspective that is more than the Men's Australian Open prize pool... An event that has been played for over 100 years.
Here is a look at the five largest eSports events in history:
1: The International 2015 (Dota 2) – US$18,429,613
2: The International 2014 (Dota 2) – US$10,931,103
3: DAC 2015 (Dota 2) – US$3,057,521
4: The Frankfurt Major 2015 (Dota 2) – US$3,000,000
5: The International 2013 (Dota 2) - US$2,874,407
For Australian fans of eSports, both CrownBet and William Hill offer extensive betting markets where punters can place bets on who they think will emerge as the eSports king for all the major gaming events.
No doubt there will be eSports betting markets for the 2016 Halo World Championships, which will outline here at Before You Bet as soon as possible!
