i3 - May/June 2016 - 22

According to research firm Newzoo, the number of eSports fans will grow from more than
256 million this year to more than 345 million
by 2019. Unlike traditional sports, which tend
to have fan bases in select countries or regions,
eSports is popular in every territory around the
world-and continues to expand into new areas
such as Africa, South America, and the Middle
East. Newzoo's current breakdown shows that
44 percent of eSports fans today reside in Asian
Pacific countries, 25 percent are spread across
the European Union, 19 percent are in North
America (mostly in the U.S.), and the remaining 12 percent are spread across other regions
of the world.
This audience is generating big dollars for
the entire eSports ecosystem, which includes
the game publishers and developers, estasblished leagues such as ESL (which operates
18 different tournaments) and Major League
Gaming (which was acquired by Activision Blizzard Entertainment last year for $46 million), livestreaming companies such
as Twitch (which Amazon acquired in 2015 for $970 million),
Azubu, Hitbox, and Yahoo, and a wide array of sponsors.
Newzoo forecasts global eSports revenues will explode from $463
million this year (up 42 percent from 2015's $325 million) to more
than $1 billion by 2019. North American (and in particular the U.S.)
is the epicenter of eSports with 38 percent of 2016 revenues coming
from this growing audience base. China generates 15 percent of the
global eSports revenue, while Korea adds eight percent.
Newzoo does not incorporate the booming fantasy eSports
and eSports betting industries into these calculations. FanDuel,
Draftkings, Vulcun, and Unikrn are just some of the companies
involved in this growing sector, which Vulcun founder Ali Moiz

MAY/JUNE 2016

forecasts could exceed $250 million by 2020. Vulcun paid out
over $10 million to eSports fans last year alone.

INTEL'S EARLY ESPORTS ENTRY PAYS OFF
Ten years ago, Intel partnered with ESL to launch the Intel
Extreme Masters (IEM) global tournament. That was long
before the launch of YouTube and the rise of livestreaming companies such as Twitch. Justin Kan, co-founder of Twitch, credits
eSports with his company's success.
IEM has visited five continents with 58 events in cities such
as New York, San Jose, Dubai, Los Angeles, Hanover, Chengdu,
and Katowice over the last decade. The first season of the
eSports tournament attracted over 500,000 video sessions,
while Season 10 exceeded 132.3 million video sessions.
Katowice has become home to the IEM World Championship the past two years, and that small Polish city's
Spodek Arena has become the Mecca for eSports
fans. This year, over 113,000 fans attended the
event, which was held March 4-6. In addition to
watching teams compete for over $500,000 in cash
prizes across League of Legends, Counter-Strike:
Global Offensive, and StarCraft II: Legacy of the
Void, fans also attended the IEM Expo, which featured booths from over 43 companies.
While that attendance number rivals anything else
in eSports, it pales in comparison to the more than
34 million unique viewers who tuned in to the IEM
World Championship. The event was the first as part
of ESL's new cross-platform broadcast strategy. The
entire event was livestreamed online and broadcast
on traditional television in 17 countries and 26
languages across 10 distribution partners, including
Twitch, Yahoo, Azubu, and Hitbox.
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

Coutesy: Patrick Strack, 1015 Best of IEM San Jose

BY CONNECTING WITH PC GAMERS EARLY ON, INTEL HAS BEEN ABLE TO MARKET DIRECTLY

http://www.eslgaming.com/ http://intelextrememasters.com/ http://intelextrememasters.com/

i3 - May/June 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of i3 - May/June 2016