Business of Esports Minute 047: Esports Certification Institute, Olympic Esports, China Esports Media Rights

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.