If there are any doubts that computer games can become a mainstream spectator sport, then Jennifer Lopez and Stan Kroenke are not listening.

The superstar singer and Arsenal’s majority shareholder have both put money into eSports teams, as the gaming competitions with millions of followers worldwide aim for even greater public appeal. Lopez has bought into a team franchise for the new Overwatch League, in which teams from cities such as Seoul, San Francisco and London play Overwatch, a mass-participation shooting game. The global competition for the game, which launches in January, also includes the LA Gladiators, run by Kroenke, a serial sports entrepreneur.

Lopez and Kroenke are not alone. A host of top sport stars are investing in eSports franchises, including the Formula One driver Fernando Alonso and the former basketball player Magic Johnson. When the US-based SportsBusiness Journal released its annual list of the 50 most influential people, 10 were from eSports. Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee has taken a big step towards recognising the pursuit as a sport, opening up the possibility that eSports could feature in the 2024 Paris Olympics two years after it makes its debut at the Asian Games.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Footage from the 2017 Overwatch World Cup.

The global eSports economy has grown by 34% year-on-year to $660m (£492m) and will reach $1.5bn by 2020, according to Newzoo, which provides market intelligence for eSports. It also estimates that eSports currently attracts an audience of 385 million people, the vast majority of whom follow the action online – via digital broadcast platforms like Twitch, which has more than 400m views a month. There are also sizeable audiences in the real world: the biggest eSports tournament, the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) in Katowice, Poland, attracts more than 100,000 fans over three days.

Sponsorship and advertising already account for the bulk of eSports revenue, at 38% and 22% of turnover respectively. Money flows into leagues, teams and players, but until this year interest has largely come from IT/computer-related brands like Intel and Logitech, or from fast-moving consumer goods – staple gamer fuel such as fizzy drinks and snacks.

However, the kinds of brands associated with more conventional sports also woke up to the market’s potential in 2017. There were high-profile bookings from prestige car manufacturers such as Audi and Mercedes-Benz, from fashion brands like Jack & Jones, and from Gillette. All were lured by a lucrative demographic: about eight in 10 eSports watchers are men in their mid-20s who have disposable income and generally shun traditional media.

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“We’re now starting to see the mainstream brands,” says James Dean, the UK head of ESL, the biggest eSports league organiser. “They have looked at the demographic and seen the potential.”

ESL, which was bought by Sweden’s Modern Times Group for $87m in 2015, produces IEM, eSports’ longest running global event, which reached 46 million online viewers in March, up 35% on last year. Along with October’s ESL One Hamburg, a tournament for the Dota 2 fantasy war game with a prize pool worth €1m (£885,000), it attracted mainstream sponsorship for the first time this year from Gillette and Mercedes-Benz.



“We seem to be at a tipping point with [mainstream] brands coming in, but the good thing is that they didn’t just treat it as a badge slap. They attempted to integrate themselves in a deeper way,” says Mark Cox, UK head of Publishing at Riot Games, the maker of League of Legends, one of the games featured at IEM. “Gillette took the step into eSports and demonstrated a real desire to integrate. They seem prepared to go in deeply from top level to grassroots. At the lower level the game is on all the time, people are constantly playing it, so they have this mass access.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A highlights reel from the 2017 IEM tournament.

Beyond splashing its logo everywhere, Gillette added one of League of Legends’ top players, Enrique “xPeke” Cedeño Martinez, to its roster of sports stars, a list that also includes the Brazilian footballer Neymar. It also set up a booth at the arena offering 3D-printed razor handles featuring gamers’ tags, or nicknames. Mercedes-Benz, meanwhile, provided branded cars for all the teams. Gillette spent a long time doing due diligence before its entry into eSports and found it was looking at an arena with significant growth rates.

“If you look at the growth trajectory, the revenue, the viewing numbers, everything is going north,” says Adam Paris, of sports marketing firm H+K Strategies, which advises Gillette. “eSports is growing at a very rapid rate. Yes, it’s finding its feet, but it feels to me that we as an industry have been talking about investing in it for two to three years at trade show panel events, but I feel it’s time to move on from talking about it and make the jump.”

While mainstream brands have been waiting to see enough value in eSports, they have also held back because of lingering concerns. There are thousands of competitions, no centralised organisation and a fanbase perceived as resistant to advertising. Research from the data firm Nielsen offers a more positive view on the third issue, as shown by an enthusiastic reception on social media for Mercedes-Benz’s presence at ESL One.

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But advertising outsiders with money to spend still struggle to know where to begin. There are a lot of tournaments, so a cull is inevitable, while ending relegation from leagues will encourage sponsors to sign long-term deals with teams. It also helps if advertisers and sponsors have employees who can demonstrate a real appreciation of the games, the teams and the fans.

Nielsen data shows a decent return for commercial backers, too: Audi received a return of more than 10 times its investment during the Eleague finals and the DreamHack Las Vegas tournament at the beginning of 2017.

Advertisers won’t get carried away: eSports is no NFL or Premier League. But the more popular it becomes, the more credibility it amasses among potential backers.

The eSports games and players

A good eSports game needs a specific appeal in order to attract mass audiences, says Michele Attisani, co-founder of gaming platform Faceit. “A top eSports game needs to have a fast-moving mix of strategy and gameplay to capture a large competitive community and create enough tension and drama to get a crowd roaring.” Popular games include Dota 2, played with two teams of five, and the multiplayer battle game League of Legends, which is eSports’ biggest game and has 100 million monthly players.

The most successful eSports player of all time is the German-Iranian Kuro Salehi Takhasomi (KuroKy), aged 25, a Dota 2 pro who has earned $3.3m so far in his career. Another Dota 2 player, the Canadian Sasha Hostyn (Scarlett), 24, is recognised as the highest earning female player in eSports ever, with career winnings of $150,000. She is the first woman to compete in Korea’s top league GSL.



