As Major Leagues cancel their season in the US and the olympics postponed at least till 2021 to avoid public gatherings in the time of Covid-19, it’s a tough moment for sports and sports fans.
As mentioned by The Vulture in “What will ESPN do without sports?“:
“From March Madness to Major League Baseball, auto racing to international soccer, leagues and events have been suspended, postponed, and outright canceled, all in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus”
The natural answer would have been eSports, but it’s not so simple. It’s hard for broadcasters to put on shooter games on primetime TV, and classic eSports games like League of Legends are too complicated for a non-gamer audience to follow. Does it just leave them with Fifa tournaments?
As mentioned by We Are Social, “In lockdown: a world without sport”:
Another category to explore is sports and gaming. These fans have significant natural overlap and affinity, with some of the biggest gaming titles based on sports. The number of hours streamed on Twitch has increased 15% over the past few days, which suggests fans are looking for entertainment elsewhere. Sport stars have joined the action, streaming games ranging from Fifa, Fortnite and Formula 1. Mesut Ozil for example, has recently been generating over 40k views playing Fortnite.
Can this be the watershed moment for eSports?
The esports industry had to make its own pivot from massive in-person events to fully digital tournaments, but content consumption is up as sports fans are looking for entertainment while in quarantine.
As Kevin Klowden, executive director at the Milken Institute’s Center for Regional Economics mentioned to Venturebeat:
“In some ways, this is the opportunity for esports, though I’m not sure it’s the one anybody wanted. Suddenly, the major sports networks have no programming. People actually want to watch games. Nobody is in a better position to take advantage of this, in terms of having content, than esports. Productions are suspended in entertainment for a while.”
Esports pivots to digital because of the coronavirus, Venturebeat
To get some clarity, I’ve asked Stefan Zant, CEO of esports.com and Managing Director of ProsiebenSat1’s 7Sports how does it look from the broadcaster side.
VC Cafe: What are the limitations for putting esports on primetime TV?
Stefan Zant: Esports has a huge potential for getting big on TV, but is still a niche phenomenon at the moment. On top to that, in german television broadcast we are still limited by youth protections. This is why we are not allowed to broadcast titles with FSK 16 (e.g. Counter-Strike) before 10 p.m. and titles with FSK 18 (e.g. Fortnite) before 11 p.m. With a view to the next years, professionalization of eSports associations as well as a stronger acceptance by society will become the most important drivers to become a mass market and get ready for primetime on television.
VC Cafe: Are you observing any changes in content consumption as people are in quarantine?
Stefan Zant: In light of the current situation we logically adjusted our content approach from aggregating event highlights and news to more situation-specific and creative formats, since most of the esports events are also postponed. For example, we created an interactive editorial meeting format with our community or included recommendations for best games while being in quarantine in our content offer. These creative formats received very good response by now and also made us break new grounds to stay innovative and add value to our content offer, especially at times like these.
VC Cafe: How do you see esports changing in 2020?
Stefan Zant: Esports has everything that is needed to be a real sport: Competitions, emotions, tactics, skill, speed and much, much more. With increasing media coverage in combination with a higher social acceptance and professionalisation of eSports associations, new viewers will be attracted although they have nothing in common with active gaming. This is why we see eSports becoming a mass media sport in the future.
***
As we are in the thick of a global health and economic crisis, this is hardly an “opportunity”. But technology has a big role to play in entertainment, and these newly created esports fans may continue their habits when life goes back to normal.
“Fans who pick up esports during this period may continue to follow it once sport does return, providing brands an opportunity to develop a relationship with the esports community. This goes beyond the realms of like-for-like games (e.g. basketball and NBA 2K), but also into games like Fortnite and Call of Duty which will appeal to the average gamer”
In Lockdown
I'm a former general partner at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google's first physical hub for startups.
I'm also the founder of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read. Since inception in 2012 we've built 11 schools and 50 libraries in the developing world.
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