Esports teams and management
Similar to their traditional counterparts, esports players often sign to and operate as teams, the management of which is an industry unto itself. One unique logistical element that distinguishes esports teams from leagues like NFL and NBA is their usage of “esports houses”, which pull in services from multiple industries to support their day-to-day operations. These properties, popularized by groups such as Team Liquid and FaZe Clan house entire esports teams and simultaneously serve as housing, training facilities and livestreaming studios in the name of efficiency.
Esports teams are equally a competing unit and a brand, with product endorsements, usage of player likenesses and merchandising through items like jerseys and branded gaming peripherals. An example of one team that has been able to achieve this status is Cloud9, an esports team with over 200 employees, according to PitchBook data. Esports teams such as TSMFTX, which were initially reliant on VC investments, have even grown enough to begin making their own investments, as seen in their purchase of Blitz.
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The digital nature of esports competitions might obscure their engagement levels to an outside observer—they are deceptively involved events in terms of live audience attendance, digital viewership and ad placement opportunities. Discussions of esports events will often cite the 2019 League of Legends World Championship, which attracted more viewers than the Super Bowl as evidence of their cultural cachet, but there are even more metrics worth looking at.
Events like the Dota 2 World Championships and Dreamhack Austin have sold out venues like Climate Pledge Arena and the Austin Convention Center respectively, showing the potential viability of dedicated esports venues. The precedent of Climate Pledge Arena filling more than 17,000 seats for a gaming event, along with other similar stories, showed the demand for live esports viewership, which has now been taken up by a number of commercial and collegiate venues. For example, Kingston Technology’s esports product line HyperX commissioned the HyperX Esports Arena Las Vegas, a 30,000 square foot venue in the Luxor Hotel and Casino—one of many of these spaces.
Esports venue usage and collaborations
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The following are some industries we’ve identified as highly related to esports and want to showcase as potential avenues for this emerging space. This is not an exhaustive list of esports industries, but rather a jumping-off point for further research.
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Like traditional sports, esports is also a potential site for gambling and as such has also gotten its own infrastructure to support it. As the much newer industry, esports betting has been able to benefit from more recent technology and solutions that have been built from the ground up to support its needs and capabilities.
An example of this is effort can be seen in Rivalry, which added esports betting capabilities to its existing online sports betting business and supported the endeavor with a gamified gambling experience called Rushlane. Companies like betswap.gg have also attempted to provide esports betting in conjunction with other technologies, in their case attempting to combine esports, gambling and blockchain. Though many of these ideas come from existing or prospective online betting services, there is also a push to introduce esports betting into more traditional circles, as seen in casino companies like Fifth Street Gaming.
Esports betting
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Click on an area of the landscape to learn more.
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Click on an area of the landscape to learn more.
Similar to their traditional counterparts, esports players often sign to and operate as teams, the management of which is an industry unto itself. One unique logistical element that distinguishes esports teams from leagues like NFL and NBA is their usage of “esports houses”, which pull in services from multiple industries to support their day-to-day operations. These properties, popularized by groups such as Team Liquid and FaZe Clan, house entire esports teams and simultaneously serve as housing, training facilities and livestreaming studios in the name of efficiency.
Esports teams are equally a competing unit and a brand, with product endorsements, usage of player likenesses and merchandising through items like jerseys and branded gaming peripherals. An example of one team that has been able to achieve this status is Cloud9, an esports team with over 200 employees, according to PitchBook data. Esports teams such as TSMFTX, which were initially reliant on VC investments, have even grown enough to begin making their own investments, as seen in their purchase of Blitz.
Click on an area of the landscape to learn more.
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