As we talk about industries shifts, a recent trend is the rise of the electronic sports industry. Basically every professional sports club has some stakes in this new market. Big brands already spend almost half a billion dollars on this branch, and experts predict this amount to be doubled within 2 years. Prize poules have already overtaken some of the well-established sports. This year there was a tournament for 23 million dollars. Compare this to the tour de france (2.05m), diamond league(althletics)(2.45m) and the indian cricket premier league(6.14m) and you can understand that this is a serious business. (Regan, 2017)
Esports stands for Electronic sports. This is the digital version of sports in all kind of different games. It requires so much focus and concentration which is comparable to a F1 race driver (Schütz, 2016). F1 racing is widely regarded as a real sports, where eSports is not yet regarded a “real” sports even though it requires the same amount of attention and training. But the scene is booming because the big sports team are involved in this attractive industry. Every football club in the Eredivisie (highest dutch football competition) already has a FIFA eSports player. This is a follow up to every big football club around the world, who already had their eSporter. With the viewing numbers of eSports in general, this is a very attractive business. More people watched the League of Legends finals 2016 than the NBA finals and it already has more fans worldwide than ice hockey (Allesoversport, 2017).
As the relevance to Information strategy, eSports is a great example of the world of internet and the quick growth of technology. This became relevant for businesses which you would never expect to have this kind effect on their business. Every sports team had to revise their business model from not only their physical sports team. They had to add the electronic sports branch to their business as well.
Regan, T. (2017) How does Dota’s prize pool compare to trad sports? Retrieved on October 22 from https://www.redbull.com/gb-en/dota-international-prize-pool-vs-real-sports
Schütz, M. (2016) Science shows that eSports professionals are real athletes. Retrieved on October 22 from http://www.dw.com/en/science-shows-that-esports-professionals-are-real-athletes/a-19084993
Allesoversport (2017) eSports: gewoon een game of echte sport? Retrieved on October 22 from https://www.allesoversport.nl/artikel/esports-gewoon-een-game-of-echte-sport/
eSports, just a game?
22
October
2017
Hi! Thank you for your post. I would like to add some information to your post. In my opinion, eSports is a real sport and is becoming a new recognized sport genre which mostly involves strategy, focus and reaction time. Despite of that, eSports are not widely accepted yet as a ‘real’ sport. Especially, the older population of the world.
However, as you mentioned in your post, companies are recognizing eSports and are starting to invest in it. Focussing on League of Legends, the most played online game of the world, football clubs like PSG and Borussia are investing in European professional teams. This shows that they are suspecting a growth in this industry as well. Unfortunately, due to inexperience in the scene, the football teams quickly fail in the professional scene as well, which leads to the loss of the personal status and a loss of investment.
Hi Alwin,
Interesting post about e-sports. I myself also watch some e-sports as well from time to time. And see it grow as well, but interestingly enough i also witness a lot of games who surge to great popularity in no time and then fall back down after a while as well. I think this is because the game producers keep changing the games by applying big or small patches. ‘Normal’ sports don’t have this at all and keep the same rules and strategies for years, which will help people enjoy the game more (they don’t have to learn the new rules or interactions). Do you think e-sports will eventually replace the normal sport scene? I believe that e-sports will keep on growing in the coming years, but it will never replace it. Looking forward to your response!