And if so, where do you find Esports Investment Analysts?
Electronic Sports, coined esports, is a form of competition using video games. It gained popularity during the pandemic with interest peaking in the sport as spectator entertainment in the absence of traditional sporting events. Its users have increased as has its revenue, sponsors and investors.
BMW, Levi’s, Volvo and Mastercard are just some of the multibillion dollar household names to invest and partner with esports in the last 12 months and they are not alone.
Family Offices have been slowly focusing on esports as an asset class led by the likes of Bruce Karsh of Carolwood Capital Management, David Rubenstein of Declaration Partners, Jonathan Soros of JS Capital Management and Meg Whitman, the previous CEO of Hewlett Packard and eBay whose Family Office alongside those aforementioned, raised over $150M for esports in the last year.
Video games have expanded beyond consoles. They are now available at the end of our fingertips, on our television screens, laptops and mobiles. In fact, 56% of esports fans tuned in on a laptop in the last 12 months, 52% by mobile, 40% by TV and 36% by PC. A further 31% said they use a tablet to watch esports most regularly when surveyed by Deloitte as part of its 2020 Let’s Play report.
High speed internet, the postponement of traditional in-person sporting events and the increase in downtime have all allowed developers to go digital and the increase in investment has not gone unnoticed.
Most projections put the esports ecosystem on track to surpass $1 billion in revenue for the first time this year. And revenue is expected to grow from here and hit $1.8 billion by 2022. This has seen a massive interest from the Family Office community and some 495M esports viewers across the world.
As esports rises the ranks as an asset class, we intend to explore its rising popularity amongst Family Offices and investigate its impact on hiring. Before we do, we’d like to hear from you – are you investing in Esports as an asset class?