The Esports Trend is Here to Stay
Here is the next multi-billion dollar industry.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken up virtually every industry across the globe — some for the better and some for the worse. One of the industries that has fared tremendously well throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic is the video game industry, and more specifically, the eSports industry. As more and more people chose to stay indoors in 2020, many turned to video games as their primary source of entertainment. In order to fully understand the blue sky potential for the industry, one must be able to distinguish the difference between eSports and the video gaming industry as a whole. To put it simply, Esports is competitive-level gaming. It is teams of players playing video games against each other at a professional level, regularly winning huge sums of money as prizes. These esports players are contracted to play for a variety of different organizations, much like a professional football or basketball player would be. These teams practice and compete on their respective game just as a footballer or other sportsperson would too. Depending on the game they play – from shooters such as ‘Fortnite’ and ‘Call of Duty’ to the multitude of other genres like sports titles — there will be a number of tournaments and events each year with hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes up for grabs, sometimes even millions. This all may sound a bit silly at first, but over the past few years, esports and game streaming have rapidly moved from the fringe to the mainstream, and viewership is actually challenging that of traditional sports. Interestingly enough, the 2019 League of Legends finals raked in over 100 million viewers globally, which was more viewers than the NBA Finals.  In reality, the world of competitive video gaming is a fast-growing international phenomenon with millions of fans and billions of dollars up for grabs. **Mainstream Adoption is Inevitable** The eSports industry has seen tremendous growth over the years, both in terms of viewership and revenue and this trend is expected to continue over the coming years as awareness for Esports continues to grow.  The meteoric rise of the Esports industry has already attracted some major celebrity names which have helped to push awareness for the eSports industry into the mainstream. Michael Jordan invested $26 million in aXiomatic Gaming, the company that owns Team Liquid, back in 2018. Drake and Scooter Braun are co-owners of 100-thieves. Steph Curry is now a part-owner of TSM. Jimmy Lovine and Offset are co-owners of Faze Clan. Plus, Former Footballer David Beckham also recently announced his investment in Guild Esports. He even issued a [statement saying](https://www.essentiallysports.com/fortnite-david-beckham-invests-in-esports-organization-esports-news/) _“I know that determination lives in our esports athletes today and at Guild we have a vision to set a new standard, supporting these players into the future._ _We are committed to nurturing and encouraging youth talent through our academy systems and I am looking forward to helping our Guild Esports team grow._” **More than Just a Competition** While there is definitely money to be made in prize winnings and eSports competitions, the real money in eSports is in other sales verticals such as sponsorship, advertising, merchandise, media rights, and publisher fees. Many eSports brands have already taken notice of this and have adopted strategies that mix eSports with larger entertainment and merchandise revenue streams. One example would be FazeClan. The nature of the FazeClan organization is rooted in competitive gaming; however, they’re not married to the idea that this is where they must remain. While keeping gaming integrated into everything they do, they’ve invested heavily in steaming, content creation, and creative branding— areas that are undeniably more fruitful when it comes to finances as of now. For Faze Clan, only 20% of their revenue comes directly from competitive gaming while the majority of it comes from other sales verticals.  **The Current State of the Esports Market** The eSports industry is an emerging industry with very little public players. For investors looking for exposure to the space, there are not many publicly available options on the market today. Below is a list of the world’s most valuable eSports companies — none of these are currently public, but there valuations have been skyrocketing in recent years.  According to the numbers and the seemingly unstoppable cultural momentum, eSports will continue to grow as an industry — and a pastime — for the foreseeable future. <% {"name": "BoxNewsletterUnder", "companyName": "Esports and","companyTickerSymbol": "Gaming"} %>
