Gambling and gaming are among the top forms of entertainment. Furthermore, both of these hobbies are practiced or played on a professional level. Nowadays people can read books from top poker players or they can get coaches for becoming better at video games. It just goes to show that these are not just simple pass-time activities for some, there is a whole market that seriously wants to excel in these domains. To that end, we will do a comparison of professional gamblers and esports players. On a surface level, these might appear as similar hobbies but you’ll see that they are vastly different when it comes to the pro league.  

Required Skills

Even though gambling is mostly about games of chance, professional gamblers define themselves as players of skill. Of course, this does not pertain to the skill of drawing cards or rolling the dice, it’s about navigating the unpredictable landscape of these games. The appeal to professional gambling lies in the fact that these players can pit their skill, experience, and courage against other players to see who comes on top. The fact that the same players tend to qualify and get top spots on poker tournaments really shows that this is the game of skill. 

However, you cannot be a pro in all of the luck-based games. If you think about it, this only applies to the situation where you can compete with others. Most of the games in an online casino don’t require opponents. Slots and roulette are purely random and you don’t get better at them by playing more.   

As far as eSports players go, they also rely on skill, but they need a vastly different skill set compared to a pro gambler. The ability to react and make decisions in a fraction of a second is one of the most important ones. You need strong cooperation skills and the ability to read the situation and think ahead. This is almost universal for all eSports titles except for Hearthstone or other card games.     

Handling Money

These two types of players also differ in the way they handle money and actually view gambling. According to statistical data collected by Real Casinos Canada website, for pro gamblers, money is a scoring system and since it’s a valuable resource losing makes the stakes a lot higher. Of course, if we examine top online casino platforms, money is also an entry fee to participate in games, and chasing high rewards can result in problems. Also, if there was no money involved courage wouldn’t be an important element for success.

For eSports players money is money, and it motivates them to get better because they get more of it. They are less likely to develop money problems or get exposed to gambling if they primarily focus on video games. 

Number of Games They Play

Gamblers tend to play a lot of different games and strive to figure out how to get better at them or apply their past experience to new situations. Using casino smartphone apps they can get access to a lot of different games of chance that include other players. Once again the games that give some sort of agency or allow them to read the situation are preferred. As you know there are different variations of poker and each one has its own unique charm and depth. 

When it comes to eSports players they likely play other games as well, but you’ll almost never see them compete in a tournament on more than one. This is because getting better and improving is extremely time-consuming, and if those skills are not transferable to a high degree, on different titles then they will focus on one.  

Working Hours

It’s hard to gauge just how much time professional gamblers invest to get better at gambling, but in general, they have a more flexible schedule. After all, they are solo players and don’t view this as a business in most cases. Pro eSports players can have an insane training schedule and very little time to pursue other things. They need to practice all sorts of things that require strict regiment and discipline, so they do countless drills.   

Conclusion 

In both cases the road to the professional league is hard. It’s a painful and demanding transformation process and most of those who attempt it fail. So saying that one is less impressive than the other is just wrong. They do cultivate different skills, and their lifestyle is vastly different, but neither has it easy. The main difference is you can lose a lot if you don’t become a pro gambler, whereas failing at professional gaming can just mean you should try a different game.