Hoping for a reaction, I ask Gfinity boss Neville Upton if he styling himself as the Bernie Ecclestone or Barry Hearne of eSport.

Both men, through force of personality and using their entrepreneurial guile, have taken niche pastimes and successfully transformed them into spectacles followed by millions on TV.

Ecclestone of course has turned Formula One into the most glamorous, lucrative circus on earth, while the irrepressible Hearne was instrumental bringing snooker and darts to the small screen.

Shoot'em up: eSport is where players and teams go head to head online or in venues playing games such as Call of Duty, FIFA, and CS:GO to win huge prizes

Gfinity chief executive Upton, surprises with his answer: 'I believe that within ten years an eSports player could win BBC Sports Personality of the Year.'

For the uninitiated (or at least those over the age of 35), eSport is where players and teams go head to head online or in venues playing games such as FIFA, Call of Duty and CS:GO to win huge prizes.

Such is the popularity of these events, which are streamed live via the internet, they regularly attract audiences in the millions.

For example, Gfinity’s G3 tournament, held at the Copperbox Arena, on London’s Olympic Park, attracted 4,000 paying spectators and got 8.7 million online views over a single weekend.

And while this doesn’t yet rival snooker in its heyday, the 1985 World Championship final between Steve Taylor and victor Dennis Taylor attracted 18.5 million viewers, there is an avid audience out there for eSports.

The prize money is none-too-shabby with a pot totalling $18million for the recent Dota 2 tournament held at Seattle’s KeyArena.

All of this proves there is a real interest in eSports from the participants and the sponsors, who are willing to put money behind the sport.

There are estimated to be more than 200 million ‘fanatical’ eSports players, though the market is far larger if you include the casual players.

Upton, who sold his previous business, The Listening Company, to Serco for £55million, spotted the potential of Gfinity-type enterprise when socialising with former staff.

'At my last company I had 4,000 employees – a lot of them under-25,' he explained.

'You’d have a drink with one or two of them and ask what they were doing for the weekend.

'Invariably I’d find out they were playing games. That’s when I began to think about this as a possible business.

Big market: There are estimated to be more than 200 million ‘fanatical’ eSports players, though the market is far larger if you include the casual players

'But even then I was a little sceptical. I met the pro-players and I was just blown away at how exciting the sport was and how credible these people were as real athletes.'

While the Gfinity CEO saw the light some time ago, a number of prospective investors have taken a while to wake up to the idea of making money from the competitive aspect of gaming.

'A lot of the people who have done due diligence on us have used their children to help them,' Upton revealed.

'There’s a lot of education still to be done. Last year people thought I was mad. Now these same people have acknowledged the need to get into eSports.'

There are only three internationally recognised businesses catering for gamers including Gfinity. The others are US-based MLG and ESL of Germany.

But do any of the trio have the magic sprinkles to turn a sport into a money making machine to rival, say, grand slam tennis or major golf tournaments have become over the years?

'Over half the country plays a game be it Candy Crush on a phone, or FIFA on a console. But we estimate there are 5million keen gamers here in the UK,' said Upton.

'It is catching up with sport such as Formula One, and I would say they [gamers] are more engaged than the football fanatics.'

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The Gfinity boss believes the potential is there, and using sponsorship, traditional advertising, pay per view and pay to play models make the business revenue generating.

'What’s really nice about our business model is there’s multiple revenue streams,' he told Proactive Investors.

'Many companies that are set up are relying on just one money-making idea.'

The hidden value of the business is the technology that allows the Gfinity to stream high profile eSports events to a hungry mass audience.

The demographic [16-30 year-old men] is a unique, but hard to target group for marketers.

'Football only has 10 per cent of eyeballs in that area. For the right brand this is a brilliant area,' said Upton.

The key target for the year is notching up 50 million views for its content – and the company is on track to hit that milestone having hit the 30 million mark earlier in the summer.

The last results revealed the business had net cash of £4.68million as at the end of December, though given the burn rate the figure is likely to be closer to £2million today, according to analysts.

Upton won’t be drawn on when the business is likely to break even - the pre-occupation at present, he says, is making the most Gfinity’s first mover advantage.

'The key thing is to build the fundamentals of the business and use that cash to do it,' he explained.

'I don’t want to be hung up about when we get to profitability.

'What’s more important is to build a business that is going to be worth a lot of money.