Millennials Get Their Own Spectator Sport

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Video gaming, as eSports, is drawing a marketing bonanza thanks to Millennials, who also make any ‘Is it a legit sport?’ debate moot, says marketing professor Hank Boyd at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. When Turner Sports transitions from Warriors-Thunder NBA playoff action tonight to its Friday debut on TBS of its own eSports league, it also will showcase Turner’s new 10,000-square-foot arena in Atlanta dedicated to eSports. But the bigger story is that a rapidly growing industry gets mainstream television exposure — about nine years after a similar but before-its-time DirecTV venture failed. This return to television is on the heels of attention from the likes of ESPN, which recently dedicated an editorial staff and online vertical to cover its games, teams, players and breaking news. (A recent ESPN report mentions UMD as a national semifinalist this spring in the uLoL (League of Legends) Campus Series. Also at the intercollegiate level, the PAC-12 Network just announced plans to officially sanction eSports competitions.)

Millions around the world are watching eSports online and in arenas. According to the research group NewZoo, 131 million hardcore and 125 casual fans follow gamers who play popular titles like FIFA, Super Smash Bros. and Call of Duty. Forbes reports League of Legends championships “draw larger audiences than most sports championships (excluding the Super Bowl.)” And NewZoo projects $463 million in revenue for 2016 and $1.1 billion by 2019. For reference (but not direct comparison, as eSports is a global collection of leagues), Major League Soccer generated $461 million in 2014 while National Hockey League revenue the same year was $3.7 billion. 

But should video gaming with the markings of a major sport be recognized alongside, say, soccer? Begging that question is a 1,000-plus-signature petition drive forcing the White House to respond to whether all non-U.S. gamers are eligible for a visa status reserved for “legitimate athletes.” Sports traditionalists among Baby Boomers might scoff at legitimizing what was once a living room hobby. But Boyd, as one of their own, says (visa questions aside): “It’s an intriguing notion — but a moot point at the end of the day.”

“You have teams competing and outcomes are uncertain. It moves in the direction of sport,” he says. But more significantly, advertisers love its audience core of 21-to-35-year-old males. “There’s a layer of sophistication that’s built into this — and it speaks to Millennials and their identity as ‘the digital natives,’” he says. “Factor in the big, forward-thinking brands buying in, and you have a trend that’s taken off and here to stay.”

Sponsors typically associated with major sports leagues also are eSports sponsors, from InTel (Extreme Masters) to beverage makers Coca-Cola (League of Legends) and Red Bull, whose eSports engagement covers events, teams, video streaming, training competitors, content creation and more.

For marketers looking in from the outside, “you need to be authentic and genuine and sure you understand the [millennial-based] ecosystem in this community,” Boyd says. “The brands working effectively in the eSports space are good at associating themselves with young audiences — the new generation, so they can speak to this new generation in a very cogent way.”

Red Bull also supports Twitch.tv, recognized as the most-accessed eSports streaming site and owned by Amazon. “You can interpret this as a further example of proactive companies that brail the culture and to capitalize on ‘what’s coming next?’” Boyd says. The site is a good illustrator of a “passive-versus-active” contrast from the traditional sports viewing experience of seeing the game while listening to broadcaster play by play and commentary.

Twitch.tv experience gives the spectator a voice in the system. The viewer can engage others in the audience through a live-chat window “and get more in tune to the nuances of the particular game,” Boyd says. “And every now and then a player will join the chat to explain a particular move. In that way, the spectator gets to influence the game.”

Similar to older-generation football fans who grew up playing the sport in their backyards and nearby parks, “millennials have been gaming through their formative years and school years, Boyd says. “This deepens their eSports connection.”