Esports and the Big Boom
                     ESPORTS AND THE BIG BO
OM
https://datasportsgroup.com/
Breaking the traditional definition of sports, which earlier involved a set of physical 
activities bound by rules and regulations, Electronic sports adds online competitive 
sports as well to that definition. Popular eSports like League of Legend, CS:GO, PUBG 
are multiplayer video games that are played competitively in front of millions of 
spectators with billions more watching them online. 
The Lure of eSports 
The world of eSports does not involve a playing ground or even a ball and still, the 
industry is witnessing tremendous growth. The digital culture has made that happen, 
pulling in significant sponsors along with spectators to give it a more professional 
outlook. We also have professional leagues coming up in the domain that are sport-
specific. 
Esports has seen a great boom worldwide, in 2016 alone the League of Legends World 
Championship final had hit 43 million viewers. Tournaments also have huge cash 
prizes of about $1 million which does not even include sponsorship and appearance 
fees the pro players earn each year. If we look at the list of highest-paid esports 
players we have Denmark’s Johan “N0tail” Sun
0+11dstein who tops that list with $6.97 million, he has earned so far in his eSports 
gaming career.
The numbers speak for themselves
Last year the eSports market generated a 
revenue of 950 million U.S. dollars 
worldwide. Even while the world was in the 
grips of the pandemic. Now in the recovery 
mode, the games are being held in person 
once more rather than the online format it 
switched to earlier. The expectation is by 
2023 the eSports market will be worth over 
1.6 billion U.S. dollars, taking into account 
the robust betting industry as well as the 
tournament's prize pools.
Sponsorship has also been a predominant part of the sport, bringing in 584 million 
U.S. dollars in 2020. While many still do not consider it a sport per se it has 
nonetheless contributed to the economic growth and would continue to do in the 
future as well. 
Viewership of the sports has seen a steady increase over time, if we look at the 2018 
numbers, eSports viewers invested 17.9 million hours watching the games. For those 
who are not familiar with the esports world, Dota 2 is one of the most popular games 
and is followed by League of Legends and Counter Strike: Global Offensive in that 
order. 
Comparing apples and oranges
While traditional sports are quite popular 
all over the world, owing to their rich 
history. It would be unjustified to compare 
them to eSports which is still at a budding 
stage. Esports still face stiff competition 
from other sports categories. The only 
ground we can compare them all is prize 
money. Taking the popular sports first, the 
NBA has a prize pool of $13 million, next 
comes Golf Masters with $11 million and 
the Confederations Cup which offers $20 
million. Surprisingly, eSports offers a prize 
almost double that of the NBA with $24.7 
million. 
And even traditional sports organizers have realized the potential of eSports and have 
come up with NBA2K, eWorld Cup, and FIFA eWorld Cup Champion to foray into that 
category.
Esports even piqued the interest of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which 
has accepted the rapid growth of the eSports industry and released a statement 
which states that competitive esports comes under the gambit of sporting activity. 
While there is no physical activity involved the players still put in a lot of time and 
train themselves just like an athlete would in traditional sports.
Even broadcasters, investors have realized that eSports can no longer be contained 
and it is a train you would have to board sometime. eSports events are being 
broadcasted live after several players partnered up with the organizers. Sports 
personalities like New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Shaquille O’Neal, and Alex 
Rodriguez have invested in esports teams. In 2020, Guild Esports which is co-owned 
by soccer star David Beckham completed its public market flotation and has a market 
cap of €41.2 million ($52.3 million). Cloud9 raised $25 million and in the list of 
investors, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian is also present. Investors are thus pooling 
in money hoping for more tremendous future growth of the esports industry.
If we look at the regional participation, North America enjoys the highest revenue 
share with 39% in 2019. There is a specific North American League of Legends 
Championship Series (NA LCS). Though the Asia Pacific region is not far off and could 
even overtake America one day. China considers eSports an official sport and said so 
in 2003. South Korea is providing the necessary infrastructure and support to nurture 
the industry as well. 
Looking at the humongous possibilities of growth in the industry it is clear that an 
investment in the eSports marketplace would pay for itself in the future. 
Broadcasters, fantasy sports developers, and App developers too want to hop on the 
bandwagon and can do so by partnering with Data Sports Group. Their unrivaled 
services in the eSports category would be an investment too. They are one of the 
best sports data providers out there and have the right esports content for you. Get 
access to data from all the leading tournaments with live scores and in-depth eSports 
statistics that would boost the engagement of your site, app or fantasy.
CONTACT US
Emai [email protected]
Phone - +1 (704) 964-6859
Address - 2600 Kinmere Dr
City – Gastonia
State - North Carolina
PIN – 28056
Country - USA