The
B U S I N E S S of E S P O R T S
hile we weren’t looking, video gaming grew into something called esports—a professional sport complete with well-paid players, huge fan followings, sold-out arenas, lucrative sponsorships and hefty tournament payouts. For video game developers and publishers, esports functions as both marketing expense and operating income. Esports can keep the general public engaged in video gaming and willing to spend more on games. Today’s dominant video game, League of Legends (LoL), was developed by Riot Games, which was purchased by Chinese tech giant Tencent in 2011. LoL uses five-player teams who control characters with differing abilities and attributes The goal is to push into the opposing team’s base and destroy it. Because each game takes place on the same map, fans can easily follow what’s going on and every game offers a balanced playing board. Live tournaments fill huge stadiums like the Staples Center in LA and Seoul’s World Cup Stadium. Prize pools often reach eight figures, and big-name sponsors like Samsung, Red Bull and Coca Cola, pony up for advertising. Esports tournaments also attract tens of thousands of fans, and millions of online viewers. To lead off this special luckbox leans in report, the editors joined forces with Newzoo, a leading global provider of esports analytics, to provide an introduction to the opportunities that lie ahead in the fast-growing world of competitive electronic gaming.
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Newzoo: Amsterdambased Newzoo, a leading global provider of games and esports analytics and research, provides esports market insight and data to the world’s largest entertainment, technology and media companies. The firm specializes in daily consulting on investment, marketing, sales and product development.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARV WATSON
The Business of Esports
luckbox | july 2019
1907-topics-newzoo.indd 12
6/7/19 1:04 PM
