This document provides an overview of the esports landscape including audiences, teams, leagues, media, and participation in traditional sports. It finds that esports fans are much more open to sponsor messaging and brand loyalty than the general population. The largest leagues are ESL, Blizzard's leagues, and Riot's League of Legends circuits. Streaming platforms like Twitch are hugely popular for consuming esports, while Turner is focusing on broadcasting to TV. Finally, many traditional sports teams are investing in or partnering with esports teams.

3. CONTENTS
Why Esports?
Audience
Landscape: Teams
Landscape: Leagues
Landscape: Media
Landscape: Traditional sport participation

5. THE AUDIENCE: OPEN TO
MESSAGINGSponsor consideration (very likely)
When a company partners with an event
you attend or follow, how does that affect
your likelihood to consider that brand?
+69% vs. General Population
+8% vs. Esports Fans
+95% vs. General Population
+24% vs. Esports Fans
+95% vs. General Population
+21% vs. Esports Fans
+95% vs. General Population
+20% vs. Esports Fans
Sponsor purchase intent (very likely)
When a company partners with an event
you attend or organization (team, league)
you follow, how does that affect your
likelihood to purchase?
Sponsor recommendation (very likely)
When a company partners with an event
you attend or organization (team, league) you
follow, how does that affect your likelihood
to recommend that brand?
Sponsor loyalty (very loyal)
When a company partners with an event
you attend or organization (team, league)
you follow, how does that affect your
loyalty towards that brand?
General
Population
Esports
Fans
RLCS
Fans
Source: Repucom (Nielsen Research) 2016 RLCS Study, Twitch

11. LEAGUES: OVERVIEW
Although dozens of leagues exist across the globe, only a handful are worthy of US sponsorship
consideration
World’s largest Esports
organization. Oldest pro league.
Based:
Germany
Founded: 2002
Partners: intel, Mountain
Dew, Gillette, xFinity
Competitions:
ESL Play: Essentially
amateur
ESL Pro: Title specific pro
leagues
ESL Natl
Championships:
Country specific
ESL One: Title specific world
champs
Owned by Blizzard. Includes major
media asset, MLG.tv. Not limited to
Blizzard titles
Based:
NYC
Founded: 2002
Partners:
Monster
Competitions:
Pro Circuit: online and live
pro tourneys
GameBattles: online pc and
console gaming competitions
Publisher of League of Legends.
Also runs official LOL league
Based: Los
Angeles
Founded: 2002
Partners: Acer,
Coke
Competitions:
World Championships:
Annual October pro tourney.
Out viewed ‘16 NBA finals.
Rotates different locs around
world
Championship Series: NA + EUR
tourney. Winner goes to Worlds.
2 seasons: Spring & Summer
Owned by game publisher Blizzard.
Brand new league with big backing
(NFL). Starts Q4 2017 Permanent
teams like traditional sports.
Based:
Irvine
Founded: 2017
Partners:
None
Competitions:
Contenders: Amateur
league
Overwatch League: Pro
league

15. MEDIA: OVERVIEW
While Esports are gaining new traction on broadcast TV, the lion’s share of consumption occurs online
Live streaming platform owned by Amazon;
primarily focused on gaming. Focus on streaming and
VOD
Based: USA
Founded: 2011
Partners: T Mobile, Old Spice, Snickers, Amp
Energy
Stats:
• 10M: daily unique users globally
• 106 minutes: avg daily time spent per user
• 20M:avg daily chat interactions
• 60%: 18-34 y/o
• 47% HHI $100k+
Made for TV pro gaming league, owned by Turner and
WME|IMG and focused on CS:GO. All matches at Turner
Studios in ATL
Based: Atlanta
Founded: 2016
Partners: Arbys, CreditKarma, BWW,
Snickers
Stats:
Five-week season, Friday night telecasts on TBS
• 316,000 total viewers, of which 145,000 were ages 18 to 49
CS:Go Major
• 2.4B minutes of consumption
• 60M video streams

19. ESPORTS: TRADITIONAL SPORT PARTICIPATION
As Esport audiences grow and viewership surpasses traditional sports, major sports/entertainment players are taking note and increasing investment.
Nearly 30 sports teams globally have an ownership interest in Esports teams. In the US it’s mainly NBA Teams.
AEG and ESL form long-term global
alliance to broaden Esports. The
partnership
will enable ESL to utilize AEG’s global
network of more than 120 clubs,
theaters, arenas and stadiums for
qualifying events, tournaments, and
world championships.
Multiple teams have an ownership or
interest stake in a Esports team: i.e.
Philadelphia 76ers/Dignitas, Golden
State Warriors/Team Liquid, the Miami
Heat/ Misfits, the Milwaukee
Bucks/Cloud9, Memphis
Grizzlies/Immortal.
A new, professional competitive gaming
league that will bring together the best
basketball gamers in the world. 17 of the
30 NBA teams have agreed to
participate.

21. For over a decade, Red Bull has taken a a very unique sponsorship approach: ATHLETE SPONSORSHIP + BESPOKE EVENT
CREATION. With Esports, they forge a similar path.

23. CASE STUDY: RED BULL: CONTENT
Red Bull delivers high quality Esports video content in various formats. Whether it’s a documentary about a player/team or it’s a recap of
an event, the video content focuses on Red Bull and simultaneously Esports related happenings. They host and broadcast live gaming
competitions that amateurs and pros can enter. Events like the Red Bull LAN competitions and Red Bull Battle Grounds both host competitions
in the Red Bull Esports Studio in Santa Monica. The website “Red Bull Esports” combines editorials, interviews, and news from various teams,
professionals, events, and game updates.
In 2015, Red Bull Media House opened its Esports Studio at
its Santa Monica HQ, betting heavily that it can ride the
burgeoning wave of competitive online video gaming into the
mainstream and become the ESPN of virtual sports just as
video gaming is transitioning into a spectator sport.
The Red Bull Twitch channel broadcast its Esports
tournaments, Esports shows and other Esports related
streaming content.
When the channel does not have any live events streaming, it’s
the home to several hundred content clips. Although the
channel has 96,000 subscribers and over 15 million total
channel views, as of June 2017, Red Bull made the strategic
decision to take the channel offline.

26. © MOMENTUM WORLDWIDE 2017: IN CONFIDENCE. THIS DOCUMENT MAY NOT BE DISTRIBUTED OR COPIED WITHOUT PRIOR CONSENT.
Thank you
glenn.minerly@momentumww.com