1. The Overwatch Videogame League Aims to Become the New NFL

By Nathan Hill from Wired

Esports are being recognized as a legitimate sport. They are in consideration to be an Olympic event and athletes are making significant money. If that’s not enough proof, Robert Kraft, who owns the NFL Patriots, and Jeff Wilpon, who is COO of the New York Mets, each also own esports teams. Even Comcast owns two teams. The sport is well on its way towards dominating the sports industry. Still, if you’re not entirely sure what esports is or why anyone would consider watching another person playing video games entertaining, this article is for you.

2. Amazon Adds Twitch Compatibility For All Alexa-Enabled Devices

By Geoff Weiss from Tubefilter

Amazon owns Twitch, which is one of the biggest esports streaming platforms. Twitch has launched a new skill on the Amazon Echo devices that plays the video or audio version of live streams. The Echo enables fans to follow along beyond the screen a la organic media. It’s easy to say that Amazon combined added these because they’re all part of the same ecosystem, but this misses the big picture. For example, Amazon owns Zappos also, but Alexa has no Zappos skills. The integration of Twitch shows that Amazon is investing in streaming because the market is booming and will continue to grow.

3. Skillz Raises $25 Million for Mobile Esports Platform

By Dean Takahashi from Venture Beat

Esports are traditionally played on PCs, but the startup Skillz turns mobile games into esports platforms. They also partner with media companies to create and develop new content. Skillz wants to fully integrate esports into the mainstream via the smartphone and the games that casual gamers are already playing. Considering that they host more than half a million mobile esports competitions a day, this goal shouldn’t be very difficult to achieve. The most interesting part of this announcement, however, is that the two biggest investors are telcos, so it’s possible that they will further expand the platform’s reach.

4. CW, EA Team on ‘Madden NFL 18’ eSports ‘Survivor’-Style Special for TV

By Todd Spangler from Variety

The CW has found that a majority of its viewers are also big esports fans, so naturally, it has decided to produce a one-hour primetime esports special with EA. Specifically, eight competitors will be playing Madden NFL 18 during a week-long tournament and the CW will make a highlight reel. This is essentially a risk-free way for the TV network to see how their fans would respond to esports content. So while this is not a large step forward television, it’s a lateral move for esports; it lets them say that there is more entertainment value to esports than live streams.

5. Esports Was Worth $1.5 billion in 2017

By Andy Chalk from PC Gamer

What use to be a niche platform in South Korea has grown into a global experience. Digital research firm Superdata has announced that the worldwide esports market was $1.5 billion in 2017. And half of that revenue came from sports organizations and brands, meaning that there is growing confidence in the space. Superdata also predicts that the market will grow 26% by 2020 thanks to a steadily increasing number of viewers.

BONUS: People Have Spent over $1M Buying Virtual Cats on the Ethereum Blockchain

By Fitz Tepper from TechCrunch

Though it’s not technically an esports game, CryptoKitties has become a viral sensation in only a few days. The goal of the game is to buy, sell, and breed digital cats. The game is played on the Ethereum blockchain, meaning that users use cryptocurrency to play the game and smart contracts to trade the cats. It can be thought of as a modern, updated version of Neopets. It’s one of the first games built on blockchain technology, so it’s pretty exciting that it is so popular already.

Curated by Hadley Stork

Top Articles: Esports Is A Mainstream Media Opportunity

Week 50, 2017