“It pains me to say, I don’t think the esports market is there yet”: ROLR CEO on esports betting in the U.S. and standing out in the betting market

From age 12, Seth Young got into competitive gaming. He said it became serious between the ages of 17 and 22 when he rose through the ranks in CS2 and got paid to play.

While he still has a soft spot for esports, it has taken a back seat as he focuses on what he calls the biggest opportunity of his career: prediction markets.

Young became the CEO of High Roller Technologies this time last year and is overseeing the company’s move into event contracts with its platform ROLR.

“We know exactly who we are, and we know exactly who we aren’t,” Young told me over a call this week. “We are not DraftKings, we are not FanDuel, we are not Fanatics, we are not Kalshi. 

“We’re not a crypto exchange, we’re not a social network. We’re a pure-play prediction markets business in the US, and we’re not taking a “follow the leader” approach. That’s just a recipe for failure.”

The platform will be flexible, Young said in a press release when announcing a recent deal with mrkts.com to advance the launch.

Esports is attracting growing volume on prediction markets, nearing major league sports in terms of the average trading per match. But Young does not believe it is ready to compete with the nation’s biggest sports just yet.

“It pains me to say that I don’t think the esports market is there yet in the United States,” said Young. “I said this seven years ago, and I’m still saying it now.

“There’s a big difference between seeing everybody piled into an arena to watch a League of Legends game and that activity translating to trading, in this case, on prediction markets. It just hasn’t translated at scale in the US yet. The market has some time before it matures.”

With the launch of ROLR taking up most of Young’s focus, he rarely has time to game these days, but did have a brief spell playing Overwatch on Xbox.

“I quickly cracked the top 500,” he told Esports Insider. “It was maybe two months of playing, and then I realized I had to stop. I was spending way too much time on the Xbox.”

He may not be gaming, but Young’s thirst for competition remains. Prediction markets are expected to reach $1 trillion in volume by 2030, and a growing number of platforms are vying to attract traders.

“This is the ultimate competition,” Young said. “I love that I get to wake up and work in a business like this, on things that I enjoy with people that I like.”

So, what will set ROLR apart from the competition?

“There are many, many things I think that are going to separate us,” Young answered. “We’re doing a lot of work on product, and I think we can lead in that area in time.”

ROLR raised $26 million in January, which is some way short of the funding rounds of Kalshi and Polymarket, but still enough to compete in the space.

“The pie is so large, and it’s getting larger every single day. You don’t need to dominate to win; you just need to execute your strategy well and get your fair share,” Young said.

With billions of dollars backing them, Kalshi and Polymarket have been highly active in signing partnerships across media and sports organizations. Polymarket signed a deal with BLAST earlier this year.

“We’re planning to be a bit more surgical with our spend, and we like to focus on things that we can measure,” noted Young. “We have a close alignment with Spike Up Media, which is a large shareholder and prolific at user acquisition. They are a lead generation partner in many different verticals, including gaming and prediction markets.

“We have a demonstrated positive return on ad spend with them over the past five years of this business with High Roller, in markets that aren’t nearly as strong as the United States. So we think we’re going to do quite well working with them, and the other partners we have lined up.”

Young is also optimistic about deals with Leverage Game Media and Alliance.com. ROLR can leverage the companies’ social media user base, which spans finance, sports, and crypto.

With ROLR expecting a full launch this year, Young’s time watching esports is now limited to following a historic CS2 Instagram account.

He added: “I’m just waiting for a clip of me to pop up.”