Disclaimer: This is just my opinion as someone who has been devoted to the game of League of Legends but has yet to break into his own professional career. The subject for today will be sponsorship sales in Esports.
First and foremost, I would like to discuss some of the recent sponsorships and partnerships happening in Esports as well as some of the things I would like to see happen. Sponsorships happen because there is an opportunity for a brand to monetize the attention they have been receiving by turning that attention to various products and marketing campaigns. With that in mind, Hasbro created a new nerf gun in the form of a Fortnite's gold scar. TSM's sales department saw this as an opportunity and decided to lead the promotional charge. The details of this deal were that TSM would receive a fee from Hasbro in exchange for the use of their competitive Fortnite team. The team would then appear in an international commercial. This sponsorship has my stamp of approval for so many reasons. The commercial, when it inevitably gets in front of the eyes of children, will spark demand like wildfire. All the while, TSM is getting their name in the mainstream media without even having to pay for it. These are the kinds of deals that grow brand awareness and Esports as a whole.
On the contrary, BMW recently decided to sponsor Cloud 9. While I acknowledge that Esports fans are often more wealthy than your traditional sports fan I still struggle to see the value added to BMW when their cheapest car costs around $40,000. BMW financial analysts have clearly thought this through with more precision than my first impression and so I'm excited to see how this turns out. Maybe there is a demographic at the perfect age for splurging on a nice car? Perhaps they have yet to settle down with a family and so the lack of responsibility leaves them with a little spare change? As far as I'm concerned we'll all be driven in self-driving cars within a couple of decades. Moving on from BMW, Cloud 9 did just secure a sponsorship from AT&T which to me makes perfect sense. AT&T is going to be the official sponsor of a weekly digital show titled, "The Nines." As a long time Cloud 9 fan, I'm excited to see this drop and am hoping for more news on my favorite player, Licorice, the best top in North America.
Alas, I digress. Let us move onto some of the things I would like to see in the near future. A game by the name of Apex Legends was recently released as a sort of mesh between a MOBA and Battle Royale genre. Each character class has 3 main abilities (one passive, one regular and one ultimate) with the goal of the game being to you and your two other teammates to the bitter end outlasting all other 57 opponents. The reason I bring this game up in the first place is because of the brilliant strategy EA Games employed instantly lock up a respectable player base. EA forwent pre-release marketing and in exchange paid Tyler "Ninja" Blevins $1M in order to stream their game on opening day. A couple months into the games release and Apex Legends regularly sees a top 5 most viewed game slot on twitch.tv. This is one of the most unique business strategies I've heard of since the PC Bang in South Korea.
Every video game, regardless of size, is looking for more ways to increase their own player base. So why can't Riot come up with a creative partnership in order to spike demand. Clearly in a game like Apex Legends that spike lead to prolonged success. A game like League of Legends speaks for itself. The cerebral aspects of the MOBA genre are unlike any other mainstream video game. So find the largest online chess communities and the people posting videos on YouTube of themselves solving Sudoku. Partner with the Dendi's and AdmiralBulldog's of DOTA2 in order to get them to play League of Legends for a day. Slowly but surely, League of Legends should have a stranglehold on the market of people playing deep strategy video games. This is important to do now so that 5-10 years from now when this same market of Millennials grow up and begin raising families, Riot still has a leading share. I firmly believe the market size could double within the next 10 years. Looking further into this projection is the ways in which LCS will be monetized and broadcasted. As more and more people begin to watch on a regular basis, how is Riot going to make the jump towards becoming big business? It is easy to imagine Esports growing into something that is just the same as traditional sports. But I believe that's just a mirage of people projecting want they want to see. The truth is human beings are dynamic and the kind that watches Esports is a lot different than that of those who watch traditional sports. I'm not saying their isn't overlap, I'm simply saying the wants and needs are far different. And with different wants and needs come a masterfully different landscape. If you have any thoughts one what that landscape might look like, I would love to hear about it. Feel free to throw me an email and we'll chat.
Alas, I digress. Let us move onto some of the things I would like to see in the near future. A game by the name of Apex Legends was recently released as a sort of mesh between a MOBA and Battle Royale genre. Each character class has 3 main abilities (one passive, one regular and one ultimate) with the goal of the game being to you and your two other teammates to the bitter end outlasting all other 57 opponents. The reason I bring this game up in the first place is because of the brilliant strategy EA Games employed instantly lock up a respectable player base. EA forwent pre-release marketing and in exchange paid Tyler "Ninja" Blevins $1M in order to stream their game on opening day. A couple months into the games release and Apex Legends regularly sees a top 5 most viewed game slot on twitch.tv. This is one of the most unique business strategies I've heard of since the PC Bang in South Korea.
Every video game, regardless of size, is looking for more ways to increase their own player base. So why can't Riot come up with a creative partnership in order to spike demand. Clearly in a game like Apex Legends that spike lead to prolonged success. A game like League of Legends speaks for itself. The cerebral aspects of the MOBA genre are unlike any other mainstream video game. So find the largest online chess communities and the people posting videos on YouTube of themselves solving Sudoku. Partner with the Dendi's and AdmiralBulldog's of DOTA2 in order to get them to play League of Legends for a day. Slowly but surely, League of Legends should have a stranglehold on the market of people playing deep strategy video games. This is important to do now so that 5-10 years from now when this same market of Millennials grow up and begin raising families, Riot still has a leading share. I firmly believe the market size could double within the next 10 years. Looking further into this projection is the ways in which LCS will be monetized and broadcasted. As more and more people begin to watch on a regular basis, how is Riot going to make the jump towards becoming big business? It is easy to imagine Esports growing into something that is just the same as traditional sports. But I believe that's just a mirage of people projecting want they want to see. The truth is human beings are dynamic and the kind that watches Esports is a lot different than that of those who watch traditional sports. I'm not saying their isn't overlap, I'm simply saying the wants and needs are far different. And with different wants and needs come a masterfully different landscape. If you have any thoughts one what that landscape might look like, I would love to hear about it. Feel free to throw me an email and we'll chat.
As always see you later,
Billy Von Arx
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