Business of Esports

In this episode (271) of Office Hours, with our host William “The Professor” Collis, we discuss a demo of Street Fighter 6 being showcased at the Tokyo Game Show 2022 and the shrinking nature of game demos!

In this episode with special guest Josh Otero (Co-Founder & CEO of NutriGMR), we discuss performance-enhancing gaming products, the role health plays in the gaming space, the challenges of the energy drink market and consumer-packaged goods for gamers, nutrition in esports, the role of influencers in marketing gaming drinks, drinks for elite esports athletes and soldiers, and so much more!

A week of news covering the intersection of business and gaming / esports, all in about one minute – everything you need to know from the “profit of esports” himself.

047 – May 2, 2021

In this week’s Business of Esports Minute: The Esports Certification Institute, Olympic Esports, and Chinese Esports Media Rights.

From the keyboard to the boardroom, this is the Business of Esports Minute! Every single week, I, Paul Dawalibi, the prophet of esports, will be bringing you my hottest takes from the week, basically, everything you need to know about the business of esports all in about one minute. Let’s go.

Last week, the Esports Certification Institute (or ECI) announced the creation of a certification exam with the goal of ensuring that the gaming sector has a trustworthy pipeline of future employees. ECI offered an online test for anybody interested in becoming a member of the esports field. That was the plan at least...until the whole idea was called out for the terrible business that it is and they shut the whole operation down. The esports flavored standardized test was in no way a barometer of a person’s suitability to be an esports company employee. This was gatekeeping for profit, and executed as poorly as possible. If you are looking to get into the gaming industry, go get real world experience through an internship or attend a reputable university that has business of esports curriculum.

In other news, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced partnerships with video game publishers and five International Sports Federations (IFs) to produce Olympic esports events. The Olympic Virtual Series (OVS) will take place during the summer in Tokyo. The esports selected are auto racing, baseball, cycling, rowing and sailing. Weird choices to say the least. The IOC is completely clueless here. Kudos to them for at least dipping their toes in the esports waters. That’s an achievement. However, the way they are going about it will not achieve what they desperately need – to attract a younger audience to the Olympics.

Lastly, Huya recently signed a media rights deal with China’s League of Legends operator TJ Sports. The deal is reportedly for five years and is worth $310 million. Chinese esports media rights are a hot topic recently. Bilibili seemed to be the only platform interested in acquiring them, but here we have 2 Tencent companies doing a deal. Tencent’s ownership of Riot (and many other studios), as well as the major streaming platforms in China, give them a definite advantage should they want to corner the market on esports media rights.

You can get esports news anywhere. This is the only place you can get real insight. For more of this, as well as the most exceptional line-up of guests, please tune in every week to the Business of Esports podcast and every Wednesday evening into the Business of Esports after-show Livestream. Also make sure to follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @bizesports and on YouTube at The Business of Esports.

In the latest podcast after-show, we discuss the ECI’s esports exam/certification, HUYA paying $310M for exclusive League of Legends media rights in China, ESL renewing and expanding their partnership with Chinese streaming platform DouYu, the IOC announcing a new slate of Olympic-licensed esports events and YouGov polls projected attendance, Dr Disrespect calling out 100 Thieves making Valkyrae and CouRage co-owners as a PR stunt, Nickmercs becoming a new “co-owner” of FaZe, Cathie Wood and ARK Invest continuing to buy Skillz stock despite its recent nosedive, and so much more!

A week of news covering the intersection of business and gaming / esports, all in about one minute – everything you need to know from the “profit of esports” himself.

046 – April 25, 2021

In this week’s Business of Esports Minute: Discord Rejection, Bilibili OWL Rights, and Ubisoft TV.

From the keyboard to the boardroom, this is the Business of Esports Minute! Every single week, I, Paul Dawalibi, the prophet of esports, will be bringing you my hottest takes from the week, basically, everything you need to know about the business of esports all in about one minute. Let’s go.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Discord is ending talks to sell itself to Microsoft or any other company at this time. In March, there were rumors that Microsoft was attempting to buy the gaming chat firm for about $10 billion. Bloomberg says Discord reportedly rejected a $12 billion offer from Microsoft according to the publication’s sources that are close to the matter. No surprise that these talks broke down. In the context of recent gaming IPOs, Discord surely knew they were worth a lot more than $12B. It was my view that if Microsoft got Discord for $12B, it would go down as one of the best acquisitions of all time for them. I suspect Discord will go the IPO route, and likely command a $20B+ valuation.

Recently, Bilibili Esports reportedly signed an exclusive broadcast deal with Activision Blizzard for the exclusive rights to air the Overwatch League (OWL) in China. Financial details have not been disclosed at this time. The fact that anyone is paying upfront for Overwatch League media rights at this point is a miracle. However, Bilibili seems to have decided that, given they are the smaller streaming player in China, they need to buy up media rights for franchised esports leagues. They scooped League of Legends media rights for China previously. Now Overwatch League. I can almost guarantee the sum paid was small because it was not disclosed. There’s just no evidence yet that paying for media rights will be the winning strategy for streaming platforms but competition is sure to heat up.

Finally, video game giant Ubisoft officially launched a new online channel called gTV. gTV will stream on several platforms including Twitch, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The channel will feature original programming that focuses on the world of esports. It will also showcase teams and players while giving behind-the-scenes looks at some of the biggest gaming events of the year. Content continues to be a huge driver of growth in the gaming space. Developers increasingly are starting to throw their hat in the content ring. I’m not convinced Ubisoft really knows what they’re doing here though which is probably why they have outsourced this new media business. The “people-story-focused” approach is differentiated and I am curious to see if there is an audience for this type of gaming content. However, the “gTV by Ubisoft” branding is terrible. It’s too close to G4TV and it feels like they weren’t sure if they wanted this to be a Ubisoft product or not.

You can get esports news anywhere. This is the only place you can get real insight. For more of this, as well as the most exceptional line-up of guests, please tune in every week to the Business of Esports podcast and every Wednesday evening into the Business of Esports after-show Livestream. Also make sure to follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @bizesports and on YouTube at The Business of Esports.

The Business of Esports is supported by YouGov, a leading international research firm that supplies the best data on gamers, games, and Esports fans around the world. Visit yougov.com/gaming-esports for YouGov’s free Esports & Gaming reports.