At first, people were laughing at the idea of computer games becoming a sport, let alone a professional one, but as time passed, esports not only proved the skeptics wrong but also established that they are here to stay. eSports in the US some would say is ‘playing in the major leagues now’ and definitely will be apart of gambling history.

1. ‘PLAYING IN THE MAJOR LEAGUES NOW’
vElectronic Sports shortened to eSports is a form of competitive video
gaming with multiple players battling each other, individually or in
teams, within single matches or tournaments that are commonly
streamed live. Fans flock to watch gamers compete for millions of
dollars in cash prizes.
Standford University held the first ever video game competition with a few of the best
Spacewar! players, students and faculty were invited to watch and compete for a
subscription to the Rolling Stone magazine
Space Invaders was the first game to showcase the eSports world by holding the first
tournament with 10,000 participants
Both TBS and ESPN began investing in eSports leagues and began broadcasting competitions on a worldwide
scale
Players can join or be recruited by
some of the top teams in the game.
The International Tournament
of League of Legends was the
largest ever prize pool, totaling
at $25.5 million
League of Legends
(LoL) Championship
totaled $6.5 million
Fortnite Fall
Skirmish Series
reached $4 million
Majority of eSports fans, viewers and players are MILLENNIALS
62% of the eSports universe are between the age of 18-34 years old
62% are Male
38% are Female
The International Olympic Committee are currently discussing the
introduction of eSports into the Olympics.
The President of the committee however, has expressed strong
reservation revolving eSports due to the violent nature of the games
and promotion of gun violence.
Despite the Presidents disapproval, the Asian games 2022 have
opted to recognize eSports as a competitive sport.
1970
2018
1980
2005
2016
THE UPRISE OF ESPORTS
in 2019
by2022
in 2018
Statista estimates that
market revenue will reach
$1.7 billion
Starting in Sweden (SWE), Germany (GER), United
Kingdom (UK), Spain (ESP), Italy (ITA), Turkey (TUR), China
(CHN), Singapore (SGP), Brazil (BRA) and United States of
America (USA)
UK
SWE GER
ITAESP
USA
BRA
TUR
CHN
CPL World Tour was a year-long global gaming competition
with 9 stops around the world
The finals took place in New York City and was televised
on MTV
The tournament Prize was $1M, $50K at each stop
and afinal grand prize of $500,000
2019
$315
million was wagered
betting revenue
jumped to
$5.5 billion
eSports legality in the US falls under most Sports Betting laws within each state.
eSports has also seen a lot of Big-Name Investors over the last few years:
- Drake - Michael Jordan - Mark Cuban -Robert Kraft -Steph Curry -Steve Young
Total wagers
estimated to reach
13 billions
Definitely Legal:
The states which have included eSports within their Sports Betting Laws are: Nevada, New Jersey,
Tennessee and West Virginia
Unclear:
These states have adopted sports betting laws but have no clear mention of eSports: Arkansas,
Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania,
Rhode Island and Washington D.C
Definitely Illegal:
Only one state has written into their sports betting laws, the prohibition of eSports betting: Indiana
2015
2016
Media Rights
$251.3M
Sponsorship
$456.7M
Advertising
$189.2M
Merchandise &
Tickets
$103.7M
Game &
Publishers Fees
$95.2M
40% of all viewers do not play eSports
60% of Market Revenue for eSports comes from Sponsorship and Advertising
*The numbers above exclude revenue from betting, fantasy leagues and revenue generated within games.
Time Spent viewing eSports worldwide increases on average
around 1 billion hours every year
NFL 141 million viewers
eSports 84 million viewers
MLB 79 million viewers
NBA 63 million viwers
MLB 32 million viewers
MLS 16 million viewers
2012: roughly 1.3 billion hours
2014: roughly 2.4 billion hours
2018: just shy of 6.6 billion hours
Fan Viewership
eSports
Market
https://influencermarketinghub.com/growth-of-esports-in-2019-stats/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/545573/number-of-people-aware-of-esports-worldwide/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/490522/global-esports-market-revenue/ https://blog.streamlabs.com/tipping-up-33-twitch-viewers-up-21-fortnite-dominates-q118-streamlabsreport-52f60450af5a
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/20/heres-why-esports-can-become-a-billion-dollar-industry-in2019.html https://www.emarketer.com/content/esports-disrupts-digital-sports-streaming
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-videogames-outlook/global-esports-revenues-to-top-1-billion-in2019-report-idUSKCN1Q11XY
https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/newzoo-global-esports-economy-will-top-1-billion-for-the-first-
time-in-2019/ https://www.businessinsider.com/the-esports-audience-report-2018-11
https://upcea.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/The-Rise-of-a-New-Entertainment-CategoryEsports.pdf
SOURCES
What is eSports?
Evolution of eSports
eSports In Numbers
Demographic
Most Popular eSports Games
eSports Teams
Revenue
Streams
eSports Betting
The future of eSports
Sponsors & Invstors
Legality
Major League Sports Teams
Top 3 broadcasting platforms
by quarterly active streamers:
1.13 million
432 thousand
32.7 thousand
1.
2.
3.
Broadcasters
eSports market
revenue totaled $906 million - $345
million from the USA alone
revenue is expected to thresh an impressive
$1.1 billion marking a major milestone
with a year-over-year growth of 26.7%
160
million
2016
2017
2018
BY2021
192
million
215
million
307
million
121
million
2016
2017
2018
BY2021
143
million
165
million
250
million
CasualVIEWERS
EnthusiastVIEWERS
2020
$23.5 billion
is projected for
wagering revenue
In the US eSports is on track to have more viewers than some of the top Major Sports
Leagues Finalgames (with the exception of the NFL) by 2021:
SGP
Top TEAMS by net worth:
Time Spent Viewing eSports
In 2019 NBA Finals Game 6 had 18
million viewers compared to the last
League of Legends Championship
brought in 99.6 million viewers