The gaming industry has given rise to a new, non-traditional form of sport that is entirely dependent on digital.
Esports — where professional gamers compete globally — despite being dwarfed by the gaming industry itself, is a growing sector and is now worth over a billion dollars.
Digital Nation Australia spoke to Graeme Du Toit, head of sales and marketing for ESL, the largest independent league for esports, who said that the industry is forecast to grow to approximately $4 billion by 2030. The wider gaming market is already massive, worth an estimated $US200B.
The skill level required for an e-sports professional could be equated to any professional athlete, where tens of thousands of hours of practice is required of them. But according to Du Toit, for esports players who aren’t subject to the physical taxing of traditional sports, they often have more hours of training under their belts than traditional athletes.
“The main difference between e-sports and traditional sports is traditional sports you have the body to worry about. You can only play and run around and get tackled so much, or play until you get injuries,” he said.
“E-sports, yes there are things like carpal tunnel and wrists and shoulders and things, but you're able to spend 15 hours a day playing games if you really want. That's not wise, but you can, as opposed to traditional sports, where you can’t.”
We are now starting to see a convergence between traditional sports and e-sports as professional sporting teams and bodies invest in esports teams, in an attempt to remain relevant to younger generations said Du Toit.
“There's varying ways in which traditional sports has tried to engage in e-sports. But typically, it's because the average e-sports enjoyer is a young person, probably male in their teens to probably, 18 to 30 is the core audience. And it gets younger as the kids grow up and that's the audience they want,” he said.
“That's an audience that just to survive sports needs to capture.”
Some examples of sports teams investing in e-sports include Tennis Australia running large Fortnight tournaments in their Melbourne arenas, the NBA team the Golden State Warriors creating their own e-sports team Golden Guardians and the Cleveland Cavaliers investing in the League of Legends esports team 100 Thieves.
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