Esports Market Watch: February 2017
Could the NBA elevate Esports?
This month marked a historic moment for North American esports as the NBA and Take-Two Interactive Software formed NBA 2K eLeague, which is the first-ever American esports league owned and organized by a professional sports league.
Esports at its core is competition through video games and the NBA has more than 70 years of experience creating best-in-class competitions: maintaining competitive balance (draft system, development league), designing and running leagues, and executing 80+ events per season.
The success of this league will answer the question if traditional sports leagues can bring their best-in-class competition capability to elevate specific games and/or the entire esports ecosystem in a meaningful way.
Here are some highlights about the league:
● The five-month season, that mirrors the NBA, will start in 2018
● There will be a global draft
● Teams will be comprised of five players
● All 30 NBA franchises are interested in participating
Critics of this league have pointed out the fact that the players playing with avatars of themselves rather than that of avatars of NBA players will decrease the marketability of this league. Meanwhile, the rules regarding the drafting of the athletes, the structure of player contracts, and who will manage these teams are still unclear.
Take-Two is not the first major developer of a sports video game title to start a competitive esports league this year. Electronic Arts kicked off their FIFA 17 Ultimate Team Championship earlier this month. The global tournament will lead to 64 contestants playing for a $400,000 prize pool with $160,000 going to the winner. EA struck television deals with ESPN in the U.S. and BT Sports in the U.K. to broadcast this tournament.
These deals represent one of numerous esports television deals struck this month. The CW Network will broadcast their H1Z1: Fight for the Crown tournament, which will have a $300,000 prize pool. The tournament will feature 15 H1Z1 teams, with Rogue Gaming, Panda Global, Echo Fox and Denial Esports confirmed so far. Turner’s ELEAGUE also announced their Street Fighter V invitational, a two-month long tournament. This tournament will see 32 of the best players of Capcom’s fighting game battling it out for $250,000 in prize money. These two tournaments also represent a shift into less popular esports titles that may also work better on television. This in turn, could provide H1Z1 and Street Fighter V with the exposure and commercial appeal that they need to grow into a more mainstream esports title.
THE BIG DEAL
02/09 NBA and Take-Two Interactive Software announce the NBA 2K eLeague
DEALS & NEWS
Investments & New Entrants
02/02: Magic The Gathering announces partnership with Twitch
02/02: Blizzard announces Hearthstone Global Games
02/03: ESPN to broadcast FIFA 17 FUT Championship
02/09: Boston Bruins parent company invests in esports team Splyce
02/09: Five major esports franchises announce Vainglory teams
02/09: Psyonix will invest an extra $2.5 million in Rocket League esports
02/13: eUnited acquires Reunited’s Overwatch team
02/13: Nazara Games to invest $20 million to start an Indian esports league
02/14: European soccer team AS Roma partners up with Fnatic for a FIFA team
02/16: Canadian Broadcaster Super Channel brings first 24/7 esports channel to North America
02:16: Plays.tv raises $15 million in Series A funding
02/20: Las Vegas reveals an arena dedicated to esports
02/23: Univision to start esports website Compete with Deadspin and Kotaku
Industry News & Partnerships
02/01: Activision Blizzard starts consumer products division
02/06: Faker breaks Twitch record with his first live stream
02/07: Esports Watchdog ESIC launches
02/09: Hot Wheels partners with Psyonix to bring their cars to Rocket League
02/09: The Nevada Esports Alliance is launched
02/13: Strongbow Investments sponsors Russian League of Legends team M19
02/15: Amazon opens new San Diego game studio led by EverQuest co-creator
02/22: J!nx becomes jersey supplier for Echo Fox athletes
02/24: Blizzard and APAC Premier announce $600,000 Chinese Overwatch tournament
02/27: Twitch announces video game marketplace function
Interesting Reads
02/01: Esports: the missed billion-dollar opportunity for publishers and platforms
02/02: Mobile games earned as much revenue as the box office last year
02/06: Esports is a losing game for old media
02/09: Record quarter for Blizzard thanks to World of Warcraft and Overwatch
02/14: U.S. games industry adds $11.7 billion to GDP — ESA
02/20: Rick Fox on the business of gaming
