The global rise of the esports industry: will it top 300 billion yen in 2 years? — Find out why TimeTicket has launched the new service “eSportStars”
There is a “sport” that Goldman Sachs predicts will reach 300 billion yen in revenue by 2022. The number of players is estimated at 500 million globally and the total prize money per competition exceeds 100 million yen in world competitions. What’s more, it may become an official Olympic sport.
The sport is “esports”, which stands for electronic sports. It’s simply a “video game” played at a competitive level on electronic devices.
Don’t conclude yet that it’s only a video game. There is more to it than that. First of all, the number of esports players is larger than that of golf and baseball. Secondly, some Japanese professional players earn tens of millions of yen a year. Furthermore, more major companies including Yoshimoto Kogyo, a major Japanese entertainment conglomerate, have stepped into the industry recently.
The popularity of esports is also growing among the general public. On YouTube, game streaming is one of the popular genres. For kids being an esports player is now one of their dream jobs behind being a YouTuber. After all, Japan is a game powerhouse with multiple manufacturers distributing their games all over the world. Shouldn’t that give Japan a solid foundation for the upcoming rise of esports?
A new service has emerged to further increase the number of players and expand the possibilities of esports. It’s a service that everyone should know about, from esports fans to investors, including business people who are interested in blockchain technology.
Before getting into the details, let me explain more about the background.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry also aims to create a positive economic effect of 300 billion yen from esports by 2025.
The rise of esports is becoming a global trend. Esports was played at the 2018 Asian Games Exhibition and was officially adopted for the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou. It was also considered for the Olympic Games in Tokyo and may be adopted at the 2024 Paris Games. “The IOC (International Olympic Committee) is definitely considering esports,” said the chairman of the Japan esports Union (JeSU) in an interview. That is not a surprise considering the fact that the number of esports players is larger than that of some official Olympic sports.
Esports is basically a game, but it has to meet certain conditions such as competitiveness, history, tournament continuity and entertainment prospects. Broadly speaking, they can be sport games or puzzle games or other games that everyone knows that include elements of shooting, fighting, strategizing and racing.
What is the market size and the future potential? Globally, the market size was 77 billion yen in 2017 and is estimated to be about 160 billion yen in 2020. Esports is popular not only in western countries such as the United States and Germany, but also in Asia especially in South Korea and China. In China, Alibaba and Tencent are also looking to grow their esports reach, holding world competitions, selling games and investing in game companies.
In Japan, the market size was estimated to be about 4.8 billion yen in 2018 and it is estimated to reach about 10 billion yen in 2022 and about 15 billion yen in 2023. The figures include sponsor fees, broadcast rights, ticket sales etc.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry aims to create a positive economic effect of about 300 billion yen from esports by 2025. In Japan, a large amount of prize money cannot be paid out at the moment due to the law, which has prevented esports being a hot topic, until now. As the government is taking the stance of backing the industry, esports could flourish as a business.
“eSportStars”: New service that broadens the horizon of esports.
“eSportStars” could be the next generation service that spurs the rise of the esports industry.
“eSportStars” is a service where anyone in the world can compete in popular esports games. For example, fans can compete against top professionals or host tournaments. As “eSportStars” is available for global users, it supports Japanese, English, and Chinese. There are about 100 games available to play, including familiar fighting and soccer games in Japan as well as strategy games that are very popular outside of Japan.
Top professionals have also announced their participation in “eSportStars”, for instance, JapanKillerAngel, the first female Japanese professional esports team to own a gaming house globally. JapanKillerAngel represents the best of the best as a domestic female team, consisting of elite athletes chosen from a large pool of female players.
A corporate team called GameWith also announced their participation as official players. The members include some powerful players, such as Zackray, Japan’s strongest player in Nintendo’s popular title “Smash Bros” (Super Smash Bros. series), Nephrite who plays “Fortnite” and Hamuppi.
In addition, TeamYAMASA, a professional team specializing in Bandai Namco’s “Tekken”, has also joined. All of their members have the JeSU certified professional licenses. The members were featured in NHK’s documentary program called “Gyakuten Jinsei — Turning Point in Life”, which is a big deal in Japan.
“eSportStars” is operated by a company whose parent is listed on the TSE (Tokyo Stock Exchange) Mothers market and the service utilises blockchain technology.
“eSportStars”, where users can compete against top professionals, is operated by TimeTicket GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of TimeTicket, Inc.
TimeTicket GmbH is headquartered in Switzerland and the CEO is Masato Kakamu, also the CEO of TimeTicket, Inc. The parent company of TimeTicket, Inc. is Global Way, Inc., which is listed on the TSE Mothers market. The company offers a service called “Career Connection”, which has a company review site with other recruitment services that 5.5 million people visit every month.
TimeTicket is a well-known “sharing economy” service where the user can sell or purchase time in units of 30 minutes. The users can use the service in a variety of ways, for example, consulting and mentoring for business, creative fields such as photography and website production, and a lot more including love/marriage consultations. It has 250,000 users with some earning 1 million yen a month.
TimeTicket is planning to utilize blockchain technology for its service. The project “TimeCoinProtocol” that the company is currently developing is a decentralized protocol that operates on the EOS blockchain. By using this, sharing services can be developed at a lower cost and provided safely. For example, a company that wants to provide a sharing service can offer a service by utilizing the platform built on blockchain.
When using a sharing service, the user usually has to register personal information for each service, but that is no longer needed as information can be shared between the services operated on the platform.
TimeTicket, where 250,000 users are registered, is also planning to utilize the platform, which means that a company wanting to start a new sharing service can reduce customer acquisition costs using the platform.
Part of the proceeds go to charity.
“eSportStars” is a dApp (distributed application) that utilizes the “TimeCoinProtocol” platform. The mechanism is similar to TimeTicket where buyers can receive services such as consulting and counselling by purchasing tickets. On “eSportStars”, the buyer checks the details of the competition ticket such as the game type and price. Those who wish to compete buy the published ticket. After the competition, both players can post game reviews and videos. The seller can set the ticket price freely and a portion of the proceeds can go to charity.
The participating partners, GameWith esport team and TeamYAMASA will also donate all proceeds from ticket sales to UNICEF (The United Nations Children’s Fund), UNHCR (The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), orphanages etc.
The operating body, Time Ticket GmbH, will also donate a portion of the first year’s revenues to the children who have been affected by COVID 19 and are planning to visit orphanages with partnering teams to donate game consoles and teach esports.
“eSportStars” aims to contribute to the esports industry development and the creation of a fairly-evaluated economic society.
Why has TimeTicket decided to launch “eSportStars”? One of the reasons is to contribute to the industry development. Although esports is becoming a trend, only some top professionals are making money. They believe that providing others opportunities to earn money will help develop the industry.
That is also in line with the mission and vision of TimeTicket:
Mission: To create fairly-evaluated economic opportunities where an individual can prosper.
Vision: Personal potential becomes someone’s value.
They are trying to create a society where personal skills and experience can be recognised as valuable products, are properly evaluated and are available for sale and purchase. “eSportStars” aims to realize that in the esport world, which is about to expand,” said Mr Kakamu, the CEO of TimeTicket.
“Professionals cannot just deliver results at tournaments; we must ensure that our fans are with us, enjoying themselves throughout the process. In the esports world there haven’t been many opportunities for professionals and fans to connect so I’m thrilled to be a part of “eSportStars”,’’ said Nobi, a professional esports player from TEAMYamasa which has announced participation in “eSportStars”.
“We are honoured to have the opportunity to connect with our fans, ‘’ said Suzu, one of the members of JapanKillerAngel.
Nephrite said that he had to save up money for living expenses through a part-time job to secure practice time before joining the GameWith team. “It is a thrilling opportunity for those who aim to become professionals as the activities they are engaged in can create value for someone and the support environment is available for their activities,” said Nephrite.
“I’m happy that we can make a small contribution to society through games, by donating a portion of the proceeds to charity,” said Zackray from GameWith.
Esports thrived in the pandemic of COVID 19.
In the spring of 2020, COVID 19 spread all over the world, forcing many countries into semi- or full-lockdowns, which had a significant adverse impact on economic activities. Many professional sports have postponed the start of the season or suspended competitions.
As a response to such an unprecedented event, an on-line tennis charity event was proposed and held and professional tennis players, Kei Nishikori and Naomi Osaka, participated in the game from home. A similar charity event was held for soccer as well, with the former Japan representative, Shinji Okazaki, participating from his home in Spain.
Utilizing one of the characteristics of esports that is allowing participation from a remote location, this initiative presented a new way of playing sports, enjoying entertainment, and making donations to charity.
As the market is expanding rapidly, “esports” may become an official Olympic sport. You can play it for yourself, or you may look at it as a high-growth investment opportunity.
If you believe in the industry’s potential, check out “eSportStars”, a new initiative utilizing blockchain technology where you can connect with players at all levels, from top professionals to general players!
Find out more about eSportStars.
Visit the eSportStars website.
Written and edited by CoinDesk Japan Advertising Production Team.
