Are eSports a Sport?

Since the very first iteration of video games in the mid-1900s, developers have been interested in making these games competitive. In fact, original forays into the world of video games were directly modeled after sports.

In 1972, around two decades after the creation of video games, the first competition was held at Stanford University. Ten years later, Atari hosted a 10,000-participant tournament to crown a world champion of Space Invaders.

Since then, the diversification of video games has led to the development of various video game leagues. Over time, these video game competitions became known as eSports.

Leagues have been modeled after major sports leagues and produce professional players that are treated like legitimate athletes—especially when it comes to salary.

Though sponsorships, winnings, and team organization certainly make eSports look like a major league sport, there are underdeveloped sectors. At the moment, betting sites like BetOnline allow users to wager on major league sports with a high degree of reliability and security.

Betting allows fans to engage with their team in an exciting way, and is a huge part of major league sports in terms of culture. Meanwhile, betting on eSports is in its infancy.

As teams and leagues become more defined over the next few years, analysts will have a higher degree of certainty when it comes to making odds for teams like Nexus Gaming or FATE.

Follow the Money

Although athleticism and finances often go hand-in-hand, the two topics aren’t implicitly related. Athleticism is an ability to condition the body so that it performs at a high level, no matter the sport.

In this way, eSports can be considered a technical and athletic skill—if for no other reason than the fact that hand-eye coordination and hours of practice are necessary (see more below).

One interesting way to quantify eSports as a legitimate sport is through a financial lens. Finances are tacked on to athleticism because fans engage with their favorite athlete or team.

Fans pay money to pack into stadiums (or, in the case of eSports, auditoriums), to buy merchandise to represent their allegiance, and find other ways to participate with their franchise, like through apps or fan clubs.

In turn, major investors will support a given league or specific franchise in order to have exposure to their fan demographic. Major brands will seek official endorsements with successful and popular teams—and they’ll pay good money to do it.

Financially speaking, the eSports industry is flushed with investments. There are cash prizes offered to various teams across a wide breadth of competition levels and video games.

There are team salaries for the groups successful enough to garner corporate endorsement interest.

Then, there’s direct sponsorship money. This covers a massive portion of eSports’ worth. For example, eSports reporting agency Newzoo wrote that sponsors raked in $456 million from sponsorship related activity within the eSports industry in 2019.

Major brands like Audi are getting in on the action by sponsoring entire tournaments or franchises.

An example is their participation with the Astralis Counter Strike team. Coca-Cola, T-Mobile, and Toyota are a few other major brands getting in on the eSports action.

Digital streaming is another major center for advertising and investment in eSports. Popular names and teams in the industry are split between streaming platforms like Mixer and Twitch.

Meanwhile, media rights rake in money for developers and event organizers. Of the $1.1 billion in revenue eSports made in 2019, around $251 million went straight to owners of media rights that are associated with each video game.

Top-performing, individual eSports athletes can make millions a year, like Jesse Vainikka (aka HerAx) and Johan Sundstein (aka N0tail), each of whom have made over $6 million during the course of their careers.

Lifestyle of eSports Athletes

As mentioned above, hand-eye coordination and hours of practice support the idea that eSports is a legitimate sport. However, a more technical look at the definition of sports implies physical exertion.

Studies have been conducted that monitor the rate of physical exertion that takes place while someone plays video games. Forays into such debates, while interesting, seem to miss the point of the eSports discussion entirely.

Whether or not eSports qualify as clearly-defined sports may not matter; eSports are popular and economically viable, which means they’re likely to stick around.

The only concrete way eSports would benefit from a sports classification would be to allow collegiate-level eSports competitions.

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/entertainment/are-esports-a-sport/