From 1 school in 2014 to now 9 in 2016, there will be accelerated growth in Collegiate Scholarships. John Yehling, AD of Athletics at Missouri Baptist University, tells me that while they’re starting with 8 scholarships in 2016 they “hope to keep growing and get to 50 in a year or two”. Simply stunning.

What I believe is even more interesting than the vertical opportunities (High School, Pro Gamer) are the horizontal opportunities that emerge very similar to traditional sports. Let’s take a look a these:

Health

This month IMG’s training facility, that has seen athletes like Andre Agassi and Cam Newton train there, opened up to eSports teams starting with Complexity Gaming’s Call of Duty team. As a youth tennis player growing up in Florida, this facility in Bradenton was the Mecca of Sports Training. Just like traditional sports, eSports requires the same focus on health, nutrition, brain enhancement, and team leadership.

Game Without Pain based in Toronto is also looking to address the physical and mental needs of Pro Gamers by connecting them with health professionals in house and through their virtual academy. They’re also launching a 6-month Free trial for those interested.

Nutrition

In addition to overall health, nutrition plays a key aspect in athletic training. While any number of health products, companies, and retail outlets can address this, 2 brands have taken the eSports lead.

My belief in why these products work for this audience: Convenience and Cost. Both are portable, can be thrown in a backpack, and retail for ~$3.

Brain Training

The use of Adderall and Ritalin has already been known in the eSports world. Last year, ESL began drug testing before events. Trying to fill this gap are products like GFuel and the numerous caffeine and sugar beverage companies, which is the most crowded Brand vertical within the industry. There could be another option with Nootropics, which are basically “brain cognition enhancers”. Companies like GoCubes and ZestTea take your normal dose of caffeine, mix it up with other chemicals, to produce a more focused and less jittery type of buzz. Considering the thousands of dollars I’ve spent on Red Bull in my life, the LTV for this market and this audience is potentially huge. Well what’s the difference brain cognition enhancers and pharmaceutical medication? We’ll save that for another time.

Apparel

I’ve said previously that a big brand like Nike or Under Armour will/should enter this space in the next 2 years. There are already companies targeting this market like Ultimate Media Venture’s ULT gaming brand. Taking a more scientific than lifestyle approach is REACTIVE Wear, which is working on performance gear for Gamers.

I spoke with their CMO (who is in Medical School) and got a 30 minute primer on how blood flow affects athletes. I won’t try to explain it here but it’s fascinating.

Speaking of performance gear, I think there’s an opportunity for Stance, the official sock of the NBA and MLB to target this audience. They initially started with Extreme Sports personalities and Pro Gamers have a great overlap. Just socks you’re saying? Some Stance socks sell for $50 each and the US market is a ~$2B industry.

Let’s take performance gear a step further and look at the emergence of Wearable Technology like Athos. What if you were watching a Call of Duty match and a player’s heartbeat was next to their gameplay data? Hi Sundance.

Game Data and Analytics

Sticking to the technology theme, there’s been a few companies looking at automating high school and collegiate game film. One of the early leaders is Krossover, which has raised $35M from the likes of the Miami Dolphins and Cleveland Cavaliers. From a tech perspective, eSports has to be easier as you get direct access to game data.

Not only do I think Krossover will get into eSports, it’s not a coincidence Krossover’s CEO was at a NBA Playoff game with an eSport team owner. [Side Story: In 1995 I was an intern at the Miami Heat and worked in the same room as the “video guy” who slaved away on game tapes. His name was Erik Spoelstra. He would have loved this tech.]

Coaching

Taking the game film analysis further, I mentioned Dojo Madness last week who are getting data directly from League of Legends to provide coaching via a Mobile app. Xsolla pictured above allows virtual coaching across a number of eSports titles. Just as traditional sports are implementing coaching technology, eSports is perfectly suited for this.

Publishers

Look at what Kurt Melcher from RMU said about Heroes of the Storm — if there were more opportunity, they would invest more in the team. Activision spent close to $250M in Advertising in the US alone in 2015. Take a fraction of that budget and directly allocate into growing the game/eSport at the grassroots level and it can provide far greater ROI.

The consistent theme across every college entering eSports is that they’re starting with League of Legends. If I’m Riot, I double-down on this opportunity to work growing this scene even further. From their investment in ULoL, working with colleges directly, and supporting local University Cal Irvine, they seem to be heading in this direction.

Brands

As Brands are investing in the Pro eSports scene, there’s prime opportunity to engage gamers at the collegiate level.

High School

Finally, I could write 1000 words on this alone but based on the horizontal infrastructure outlined above, you can see the potential. Here are a few examples:

The NCAA was formed over a 100 years ago. The 1st official NCAA Men’s Soccer tournament didn’t happen till 1959. Just as we’re seeing the early stages of professional eSports, a similar groundwork is being laid at both the high school and collegiate levels.

[I wanted to analyze E League’s TV and Digital viewership this week however another week of data will tell a better story and separate it from the noise currently. The initial results…surprising to say the least.]

Supercell Hiring For eSports Role

Clash of Clans and Clash Royale publisher is looking to hire someone to “Define and shape the competitive vision” for their current and future games.

My Take: “We believe that Clash Royale has the opportunity to take eSports to a place it hasn’t quite caught on…mobile platforms”. Dear Supercell, I wholeheartedly agree. Not only have I spoken about the mobile potential for eSports but I can’t stop talking about the eSports potential for Clash Royale.

One of the biggest challenges in making a game a mainstream eSports is accessibility. You can see the efforts E League is trying to get a new audience to understand Counter-Strike. My 8-year old son learned to play, not just watch, Clash Royale in 5 minutes. Further, Supercell must have pre-planned for the eSports potential based on the features they’ve baked into the game:

Players get notifications inside the game when a tournament goes live like the Helsinki one in April

This trojan horse — you can watch other players games currently directly in the game via Supercell’s TV Royale feature. Take a look at some of the view counts (Yes, View counts actually mean something here as it’s only completed Views from my tests):

Vainglory still has potential as a Mobile eSport but if any game is going to make it even bigger this year, it’s Clash Royale. You’re also going to see a major brand partnership before 2017.

Wenner Media To Launch Glixel, Website For Gamers

Rolling Stone publisher to launch gaming focused newsletter and website.

My Take: The first two newsletters have great art, focus on culture and long form pieces…just like the Rolling Stone for Gaming you’d expect. It’s good but what’s currently lacking in the Gaming/eSports media space that Glixel will address? With the challenges of launching new media ventures today and competing for digital ad dollars with FB/GOOG, it will be interesting to see how Glixel monetizes going forward.

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT: SOYLENT

My Take: I always love seeing new, innovative brands take the leap into eSports. If you haven’t heard of Soylent, it’s basically a drink that replicates a nutritious meal at about $3 each. You can see why this audience would be perfect for Soylent: Quick, cheap and gets you full so you can keep going.

There was no info on this, so I don’t have the details on the overall partnership, but Soylent did tell me that “eSports is a segment we’re interested in”. In addition to being mentioned on ESports Arena’s Twitter, the most prominent features were product placement on the Analyst desk and In Game logo.

This is not Soylent’s first venture into eSports — last year they sponsored the ESL ESEA Pro League and ESL One Event at Madison Square Garden. Looking forward to seeing them do more this year.