And some recent data supports Warman’s thought. While French football club Paris St-Germain has created an eSports team, some English clubs - including Manchester City - employ professional gamers.
eSports generated US$ 493 million in revenue in 2016, with a global audience of about 320 million people. Prize money of US$ 93.3 millionwas won last year, with the winning team at the League of Legends world championship - the biggest esports event - sharing a pot of US$ 1 million
Paris St-Germain moved into gaming in October, creating its
own esports franchise and signing three of the world's leading gamers. PSG
wants to establish the team in one of eSports' most iconic games - League of
Legends - as the club tries to raise its global profile, particularly targeting
the US and Asian markets.
"eSport for us is a way to find a new fan of the brand, not necessarily
focus on football," Fabien Allegre, PSG's director of merchandising and
brand diversification, told BBC Sport. "The idea is to bring the club to a
large number of people who don't know anything about football."
Allegre believes it is the "future" for football clubs and predicts the creation of an online Champions League-style competition between clubs that own esports franchises.
"It's more than a marketing stunt," says Warman. "Football clubs see this opportunity as a strategic part of their franchise. Sports clubs are now dependent on revenues that come from areas outside of their league so this is their marketing objective. eSports is completely global, with hundreds of millions of viewers, so it would take their brand across the globe."
Money
Regarding where the money comes from, sponsorship is the biggest revenue
stream in eSports, bringing in much more than is raised by the media,
advertising, merchandise and ticketing.
Newzoo predicts income will treble in the next four years, valuing eSports as a US$ 1.49 billion industry by 2020.
"The reason companies are investing in this is because they want more eyeballs and time to promote their product so people will spend more money on their games," said Warman. "Gaming has been the favourite pastime of the younger generation for a long time and eSports branching out to live events is like becoming comparable to traditional] sports,” he added.
"Brands now have a way to reach this audience that previously was so hard to reach, because gaming is transforming into something they understand. They can sponsor it and advertise so brands and other companies are jumping on this like crazy. We are going to see a lot of parallels that we see now in sports and that will take it to the next level," Warman concluded.
Bright future
"Considering an audience of about 160 million is watching eSports frequently and another 160 million watch big championship games, it already compares to medium-tier sports," says Warman.
"So it can match the size of, say, tennis and field hockey, while it's also coming very close to basketball and the audience size is becoming very comparable to individual sports. In terms of revenue, it is still dwarfed by sports but it is only a question of time to when that will change. If you see it as an individual sport it has the potential to become one of the top five sports in the world. That will take maybe five years," Warman said.
Audience
"Young digital natives are not really into
sports," claims Warman. "The majority of these eSports enthusiasts
are aged between 20 and 35. That is quite surprising because you would expect
teenagers to be the majority figures in this group. But the viewing audience is
generally older.”
According to Newzoo, in 2016, the total eSports audience in the UK reached
about 6.5 million, with 3.1 million eSports enthusiasts. The vast majority of
these are males (69%) and aged 21-35.
Warman believes the industry needs to professionalise and
set up an organised structure of governance. He also predicts a big battle
between the world's leading sportswear giants to get their brand on the jerseys
of eSports heroes.
Source: GBM / BBC.com
