No sport is can exist without sponsorships and Esports is not lacking. The money generated by esports is more than the AFL, IPL and the biggest football league in the USA, MLS. According to “newzoo” in 2018 Esports earned 359.4 million dollars from sponsorships. This staggering figure is steadily increasing every year. Another important factor is that the majority of these companies are gamer oriented. The likes of intel, cocacola, doritos are all invested in advertising. Whilst it can be argued these companies are enormous when over half the sponsors are tech related, (blog.betway), the forecast for growth is evident. As viewers increase, the mainstream continues to gain interest in the industry the more money that will be pumped into growing these new sports. The more mainstream, the more viewers, the more undeniable that this is a sport.
Do you know what football is? Yes. Do you know what Tennis is? Yes. Do you know what basketball is? Does that mean that all sports are defined by being known by the majority of the world. No. What if I told you that the equivalent of the 24th most populated country in the world tuned in to watch the League of Legends Mid Season Invitational. The national sport of Spain is bullfighting, a “sport” where you must a man tries to slaughter a bull before it can hurt him. I would bet that the majority of the world would hear this and be skeptical of it being a sport, let alone a national one, yet it is nationally recognised. Now imagine if bullfighting was added to the olympics when it was hosted in spain. You would be taken aback. So when France is in talks to add esports to the olympics in 2024, I would not be surprised if you were taken aback. However if an entire countries worth of people watch it as a sport, you must consider both a sport. Esports has the viewership and easily is as difficult to become a professional in as any other sport. What else is there.
An athlete. A professional in a sport. Whilst it may be hard to see esports pro’s as athletes, there are many comparisons. We believe that a F1 driver is an athlete. Yet they are pros at driving. Now if I were to tell you that this year an esports player beat an F1 driver in the same car. Enzo Bonito beat Lucas di Grassi on the same track in real life. An esports pro, used his skills and managed to beat another pro. That is not the only comparison that can be made. In the Overwatch League, (An esports league), teams are hiring psychologists, personal chefs and even personal trainers. This is to insure that their athletes are at their best for their events. Esports even contain the same doping issues that most other sports have. Where steroids are used in real life, adderall is wildly rampant in Esports. In addition the professionals have to practice often for 10 hours a day. A feet that the majority of athletes cannot pull off as their bodies simply cannot allow it. In this area esports pro’s match their “counterparts”, in every aspect. After reading all of that I find it hard to believe that they could not be considered athletes
Professional.
In conclusion Esports is so similar to real sports that if people gave it a chance they could see and enjoy a new, exciting type of sports. With the amount of companies recognising the value in advertising there would surely be able to grow a stable scene. Not to mention that there are millions of players who readily support their favourite teams and watch them for hours on end. Sure, they may not be as physical yet I find that as we move forward together, we can see sports as a form of the highest skilled competing whilst being watched for entertainment. Esports ticks all of these boxes. How much does Esports have to prove by itself till the rest of the world will back it up? It's only a matter of time.
Sources
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Statista. 2019. • Top eSports championships by unique viewers 2018 | Statistic. [ONLINE] Available at: .
Matt Perez. 2019. Report: Esports To Grow Substantially And Near Billion-Dollar Revenues In 2018. [ONLINE] Available at: .