More people watched the 2016 world finals of popular esports game League of Legends (43 million viewers) than the NBA Finals Game 7 that year (31 million viewers). In fact, over 380 million people watch esports worldwide both online and in person. Contrary to common perception, esports is not simply a phenomenon occurring in the basements of unemployed twentysomethings the industry is real, growing globally, and investable. In the same way that traditional sports have competitions in baseball, basketball, and football, esports encompasses competitions across a variety of video games. –Steve Borenstein, Chairman of Activision Blizzard’s Esports Division and Former CEO of ESPN and NFL NetworkĮsports is a booming global industry where skilled video gamers play competitively. I believe esports will rival the biggest traditional sports leagues in terms of future opportunities, and between advertising, ticket sales, licensing, sponsorships and merchandising, there are tremendous growth areas for this nascent industry Its first major capital inflows actually came from the sporting world ( Shaquille O'Neal, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Cuban, Jeremy Lin). Until today, esports has been largely untouched by conventional investors.In May of this year, the NBA announced that seventeen of its teams will participate in the NBA 2k League, an esports league and joint project between the NBA and Take-Two Interactive Software.Sony is partnering with gaming tournament organizer ESL to power Sony Playstation Vue, a 24-hour TV network dedicated to esports. YouTube has made its biggest investment into esports to date, signing an exclusive multi-year broadcasting deal with gaming platform Faceit.There will be ten spots, each with the hefty price tag of $10 million to buy in. A recent announcement from Riot on their League of Legends title has established a franchise model for the North American league.It was acquired by Amazon in 2014 for $970 million and reached close to 5 billion total hours streamed in 2016. Twitch is one of the most popular streaming sites for esports.The upcoming year should see esports grow to ~$700 million in revenue, a growth of 41% from the previous year and an increase from $325 million in 2015.

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