I’m paying attention to eSports and Cyber Athletes, are you? Hint: you should.

Back in the early and mid 2000’s, I had a startup bridging the video game and advertising sectors. I saw firsthand the evolution of the gaming console and how plugging an Ethernet cord into a system can unlock amazing opportunities. In 2007, I posted a presentation to Slideshare that talks about the video game landscape and now it has thousands of views.

I have gotten back into the space recently through an angel investment I made in a company called StageTEN. They are a Toronto based cloud video studio which is focusing on the eSports market to begin with. They allow any eSports broadcaster the ability to make their videos much more interactive than what is provided today as standard on Twitch, YouTube Gaming and other platforms.

I’ve been watching this space to figure out how else to take part as an investor and advisor.

eSports is growing: the U.S. eSports audience has grown from just under 2 million fans in 2010 to over 32 million this year per SuperData Research. About $100M+ in eSports revenue is generated in the US which is about 40% of the worldwide total. In 2015, it’s expected that eSports viewership will reach 133 million fans while NFL tournament viewers number 210 million and Nascar tournament accounts for roughly 400 million.

I believe that with the amount of video gamers in the world, eSports will eclipse both sports in the next decade.

I wrote about being the Ari Gold of eSports back in 2007 and I think that’s a big opportunity today. I was at TwitchCon and saw Flood Gaming snooping around and talking to streamers.

If you are knowledgeable about eSports and cyber athletes, I’d love to pick your brain. If you know someone I should speak to, I’d love to chat too. Lets connect. Ping me here.