Esports: Informative Paper

Video games have been around for many years and so has competitive gaming. The first video game was created around 1970 and was Pong. Pong required one or two players to play. The players would play next to each other and the game required both players to move the courser to the ball and knock in to the other player’s side. Pong was the first competitive video game because you could play with another person. The video game industry now is a very big market and is suspected to be an 86 billion dollar industry in 2016 (A Classification Of Business Models In Video Game Industry). For the past couple of years video competitions have gotten really popular and now there is a franchise called eSports that hosts gaming competitions in big areas. “The past several year’s eSports have seen meteoric growth in dozens of markets, attracting tens of millions of viewers each year in the United States, alone” (Hollist). Esports is made up of many different games and each game has different teams that specialize in the game that they are competing in. E-Sports 89 million viewers in 2014 and is suspected to grow to 145 million in 2017. ("Red Bull Media Readies ESports Studio for Prime Time."). Competitive gaming should be recognized as a sport because each team has a sponsor. The sponsors pay for all associated costs of the player’s gaming including, but not limited to, plane tickets, hotel rooms, and food. In return the teams have to wear the

sport as a result invest must more interest into it. The NFL is able to leverage the fact that

Even though football players are aware of the dangers the game can bring upon them, they take part despite it. The passion, the joy it creates; for professionals it’s also the devoted fans and compensation they receive is what keeps the players motivated. Today players are much bigger, faster, smarter, bigger, better. The game is more physical. The sport has never been so competitive. The popularity has reached new peaks, as much that the NFL has thoughts of moving a team to London, England. Additionally, Super Bowl XLVII (47) was one of the most watched television events of all time; an astonishing 108.4 million viewers (The Associated Press). Fans worship their teams and love to see big hits. Football is a contact sport; injuries are no

Sports enthusiasts provide the target market for ESPN within the sports entertainment industry. The specific target market segment we will target for ESPN’s streaming service is busy individuals who want to keep up with sports but are unable to do so because of time constraints. The entire target market may include individuals who lack adequate access to ESPN outlets, such as “cord-cutters”. However, we will be focusing exclusively on young male individuals who are unable to fulfill their sports entertainment viewing needs due to busy schedules and a lack of time. This target market segment

It is only going to keep growing as technology spreads and more fans get familiar with smart phones and tablets.

The National Football League (NFL) is an example of the incredibly successful industry generated by the sport. This business has been, and continues to be, the highest earning sports league in the United States. Average revenue that a franchise earns in the NFL is 286 million dollars, with the closest industry trailing behind being Major League Baseball (MLB) averaging almost 50 million dollars less (Gaines). Another aspect to observe with this comparison is putting in proportion how much more is made per game since football has significantly fewer games. The NFL creates its leading revenue in only a 16 game regular season, whereas the MLB falls short after playing 162 entire games. Putting this into perspective, an NFL team generates an average 17.8 million dollars a game, but an MLB team generates only 1.4 million dollars a game. Revenue

The two extremely popular sports have huge fan bases. The average number of television viewership in the United States for the 2016 baseball World Series was twenty-three million four hundred thousand according to statista (http://www.statista.com/statistics/251536/average-tv-viewership-of-selected-major-league-baseball-games/). The average number of television viewership for the 2016 football Super Bowl was forty-six million six hundred thousand according to statista (http://www.statista.com/statistic/216538/super-bowl-us-tv-ratings/). It should also be noted that the World Series was the average of seven games, whereas the Super bowl was a single game. The average amount of viewers, and game attendance varies considerably from team to team. With those numbers, it is more like who in the United States is not watching the

Along with the generation of revenue, the popularity of the athlete has amplified income for the National Collegiate

Money is invested into these governing bodies of sport that will make new openings for more people to play local sports.

Though there have been so many factors to determine the success of a game especially in sports, there are only few that provide real life experience. With the growing gaming market and the increased number of gamers who are aware of the world market in games and sports, the requirements to keep up a competitive game system is essential to the business of gaming (Ruggill & McAllister, 2011).

While growing up in the state of Texas I was introduced to National Football League (NFL) at a very young age. Not only was I obsessed with great players like Emmitt Smith and Michael Irving, I had a more finical appreciation for the lucrativeness associated with the NFL. My young adulthood as well as my teenage years was spent playing and learning football with the aspirations of hopefully making it to the NFL. Unfortunately, my playing days ended with tryouts at Texas Tech University, but my love for the game has remained stagnant over the years even till this day. The NFL today is Americas most watched sports league and has taken the crown as the most lucrative and unique economic force in sports. Forbes offered approximations stating that on average, the NFL generates more than $6-9 billion a year in revenues alone. A third of the individual franchises in the league were appraised at over more than $1 billion while the other franchises average nine figures or higher. The NFL as an organization generates its revenues through a multitude of ways ranging from huge television contracts, in-stadium ticket sales, advertising ads paid for by sponsors and merchandise. Their business model unlike most other leagues, is centered on a hard salary cap on player contracts which provides cost certainty with its sponsors. In this paper, I will examine the economic and historical narrative associated with the growth of the NFL’s

Throughout the Michigan Sports Business Conference, undergraduate and recently graduated students were able listen to an impressive list of speakers speak about the sports industry and the digital age. This conference was able to create a smart and innovative agenda where various facets of the sport industry were discussed. Since people are extremely passionate about sports and would love to work in this field when they graduate from any university, MSBC put together this conference to attract top sport executives like Jaymee Messler, Erik Sorenson, and David Bowman to educate and develop the potential leaders of this industry. While every speaker and panel was fascinating to listen to, the speaker that was most captivating and alluring was the final speaker of the day, Jaymee Messler.

Does anyone care for Sunday night football? This is not just any Sunday night NFL game, but the biggest sporting event in the world that 151 million people will watch in 232 different countries. (“By the Numbers”). Welcome to the Super Bowl. The huge night that everyone looks forward to is a “billion-dollar economic engine that is bigger than the Gross Domestic Product of many nations” (John 3). Although the Super Bowl is only played once a year, it is the biggest, most-widely known game in American history and the most-widely viewed television spectacle in the world.

Fantasy sports has evolved from its humble roots as the niche Dungeons & Dragons-esque intersection of sports fandom and statistical nerdiness. According to Fantasy Sports Trade Association market research conducted by Ipsos, there are over 36.6 million people playing fantasy sports in the United States and Canada and is a rapidly growing industry that generates over a billion dollars per year. The once maligned cult hobby has grown into an undeniable sports subculture, commanding regular coverage from all major sports networks, in addition to active online communities, podcasts, and even paid services catering to fantasy sports players.

eSports are a form of a sport that deals with video games and their competitions between professionals. eSports has risen over the years, with 2016 allowing the peak of the popularity. “Consider this year’s The International 2016 DOTA (Defense Of The Ancients) 2 Tournament,” Chris Wood says to The State Press [eSports deserve their place in the world]. “The total prize pool available to the winning teams of this tournament (August, 2016) was around $20 million dollars. In comparison, the prize money pool for the 2014 Rose Bowl was $22 million.” With winnings like this, I believe it is beyond safe to say that eSports are on the rise, and they mean business.