Everything You’ve Wanted to Know About eSports But Were Afraid to Ask
Consider a category with 200M daily users globally and more than two hours average daily engagement. It’s safe to say that most investors would be intrigued. (For comparison, Netflix has 93M members globally, of whom an estimated 20–40% stream daily.) Add that these users fall into the coveted Millennial and Gen Z demographics, and it seems like a no-brainer.
Welcome to the world of eSports — a category that grew 52% year over year and raked in an estimated $696M in revenue last year. Yet at this year’s Upfront Summit, a show of hands among 400 of the country’s top investors indicated that only a few had ever invested in, played or even watched eSports. When it comes to eSports, it seems that either investors and consumers are all in — see the success of Twitch or LA’s own Riot Games as examples — or they aren’t all that familiar with the category.
But whether you’re an eSports enthusiast or still not sure whether League of Legends is the summer’s next Batman movie, there’s a lot to gain from the conversation led by Upfront partner Greg Bettinelli, featuring some of the leaders in the category: Colin Carrier from live-streaming video platform Twitch; Stephen “Snoopeh” Ellis, a retired eSports champion; Clinton Foy, Managing Director of Crosscut Ventures and owner of eSports team The Immortals; and Matt Wolf, who leads eSports brand investments for The Coca-Cola Company.
In this video, you’ll hear:
- How brands are pursuing the eSports consumer
- Where the monetization and investment opportunities currently exist
- What it takes to be an eSports champion
- Which businesses should really be nervous about the growth of eSports
See more videos from the 2017 Upfront Summit here.
