INTHEBLACK April 2022 - Magazine - Page 46
F E AT U R E
// E S P O R T S
Right: A participant in the
eSport “Dreamhack”
festival in Leipzig,
Germany, in January 2018.
Below: Team Virtus.Pro
competes in the final round
of Counter-Strike: Global
Offensive during the V4
Future Sports E-sport
international video game
contest in Budapest, in
March 2018.
MONEY TALKS
Esports is comprised of many different categories,
with different games within those categories.
“I liken it to athletics, where there are a number
of different competitions within it,” explains Kwan.
There are the esports versions of traditional
sports, such as FIFA’s videogame series and
MotoGP eSports Championship. However, the
most popular esports titles tend to be games that are
unique to esports, like League of Legends, which
is a multiplayer online battle arena that focuses
on strategy skills. League of Legends is regarded
as having reshaped the landscape of esports by
generating tens of millions of dollars
in prize pools.
Esports is the competitive side of gaming, and
estimates of projected revenues range from US$1 billion
to US$3 billion, says James Walton, sports business
group leader at Deloitte South-East Asia.
“There’s a great divergence in terms of what people
feel the potential revenue is of esports at this point
in time,” he says. “It’s difficult to quantify because of
how fragmented the industry is in terms of different
leagues and organisations in different countries. And
so much of this is ‘finger in the wind’.
46 ITB April 2022
“THERE’S A GREAT
DIVERGENCE IN
TERMS OF WHAT
PEOPLE FEEL THE
POTENTIAL REVENUE
IS OF ESPORTS AT
THIS POINT IN TIME.
IT’S DIFFICULT TO
QUANTIFY BECAUSE
OF HOW FRAGMENTED
THE INDUSTRY IS IN
TERMS OF DIFFERENT
LEAGUES AND
ORGANISATIONS
IN DIFFERENT
COUNTRIES.”
JAMES WALTON, DELOITTE
SOUTHEAST ASIA
“With Major League Baseball, it’s easy to track the
revenues – you look at things like ticket revenues, TV
rights and merchandise sales. With people watching
esports at home all around the world, it is challenging
to put a figure on it.”
Nonetheless, esports is growing at a faster rate than
almost any other sport, and it has benefited enormously
from COVID-19 lockdowns as the only sport that
could continue almost without interruption. “An
esports world champion could sit in their house and play
another champion across the globe, and spectators could
watch without any issues,” says Walton.
“And, from a spectator point of view, watching it from
home may be better than watching it in a stadium – in
some ways it is similar to watching a sport like poker, in
that the competition area is very small, and as a spectator
you need to see each player’s perspective and not the view
from your seat.”
INVESTMENT TO PICK UP PACE
Several esports organisations are listed on the
NASDAQ and New York Stock Exchange, which
Walton interprets as “a sign that the spending and
investment is going to increase”. High-profile esports
investors include Shaquille O’Neal with a stake in NRG