New piece on eSports published

Further evidence of the potential of eSports was provided this week with the publication of an Activate – MBA Syracuse Martin J. Whitman School of Management study which predicts that by the year 2020 betting revenues from eSports will have soared from $300 billion currently to $1.5 billion annually.

Highlights from the survey include:

* 70 million individuals will watch eSports finals events live or via TV and internet channels by 2020 – second only to NFL major events;

* More than 250 million people follow the competitions, according to Activate, and most of those viewers also play;

* By 2020 viewing hours will top 3 billion in the US alone – around 10 percent of all sports viewing. Globally that figures rises to 11 billion;

* The main eSports audience demographic is males, aged between 18 and 25…and they watch more eSports than traditional sports;

* 77 percent of eSports fans bet on the competitions – more than double the average 33 percent of the public;

* By 2020 US video game publishers will use in-game eSports betting to add $2 billion to the current $109 billion industry;

* Live streaming group Twitch had 10 million daily eSports users when Amazon bought it for a billion dollars in 2014; Amazon itself has 2 million streamers;

* General in-game betting will grow from $5 billion to $12 billion over the next three years;

* Esports teams and leagues are collecting high-dollar sponsors, like Mercedes. They are selling professional franchises to the owners of “traditional” American sports teams. High schools are forming teams, and universities are offering scholarships;

* The Esports Integrity Coalition has been introduced to professionalise eSports by representing players, standardising regulations and schedules, and establishing rules to combat doping and cheating;

* News outlets have their own eSports reporters and sections, and Nielsen announced the formation this year of Nielsen Esports to track the sector;

^ Example: The 2016 championships of the role-playing game League of Legends attracted 43 million unique viewers, who watched a total of 370 million hours of players competing for $6.7 million in prizes via 23 broadcasts in 18 languages. At its peak, 14.7 million people were watching;

* Unlike football or cricket, eSports are not rooted in any region or culture, so they have a more global appeal.

See the full report with graphs here