OTT platforms have been at their zenith, with a ton of sports-centric content produced and consumed on the go. Before you conclude that the OTT sports ecosystem is complete with live events of physical sports, consider the latest dimension of today’s sports streaming model. Yep, you guessed it. Esports and video gaming can become reliable revenue generators if you put consistent efforts into your esports streaming business with clearly defined growth objectives.
Last year, Deloitte ran an extensive consumer survey among 25,000 people from 22 countries in Asia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East and derived key observations regarding the prospect esports streaming platforms hold for the future. According to the resulting report, video gaming and esports could bring in a combined revenue of $184 billion, with the industry projected to be worth $211 billion by 2025.
Esports is certainly not a new thing. The world has been familiar with competitive gaming since the 1970s. With the advent of the initially-referenced World Wide Web, the need for Internet services increased, and so did more and more channels streaming competitive gaming tournaments. That early outburst created a strong ecosystem of web-enabled digital players and opened new business opportunities. In the present video streaming era, esports is gaining ground with a growing fan base and strong communities of professional players connected across the globe.
Furthermore, traditional broadcasters are streaming esports to reach the target groups who reject linear TV, making game-streaming content a premier asset for endemic and non-endemic brands alike.
Before we dive into the business side of the esports story, let’s elaborate further on some fundamental concepts to build a solid base for our discussion.
Esports are often unfairly tied closely together with video gaming. Despite minor differences, their value chains are deeply intertwined to offer products and services in the electronic gaming sector. However, let’s decipher the minor divergence esports has from video gaming.
Video games are platform-agnostic. Playing Candy Crush on your mobile device and Super Mario on your Nintendo console gives a video gaming experience. Esports, on the other hand, has professional gamers playing a game such as Minecraft, Overwatch, League of Legends or Counterstrike while millions of viewers streaming on demand. The live participation of gamers and viewers makes them the two most critical audience segments businesses and brands must cater to when building an OTT business model for esports streaming leagues.
Esports and live-streaming video and music content go hand-in-hand because of their natural proximity. These sectors create a foundation for subscription businesses delivering video and audio content on-demand and enable them to tie the two worlds together.
However, understanding the bigger picture takes time and effort from video streaming businesses, as the customers tuned into esports streaming videos are younger, more educated, and affluent than the previous generations. Most importantly, viewer participation in the game counts! Agility and flexibility are the virtues you need to build while catering to an audience like this. This makes developing and implementing fan engagement strategies a critical component to navigating the complexities of the esports ecosystem.
Consider the fact that esports revenues primarily come from channels including:
- Bidding on advertisement and sponsorship revenue by generating creative content
- Partnering with product companies and working on mutually rewarding business opportunities
- Developing new company-owned structures to develop and deliver new games (also products to this category)
- Making equity investments in brands that sponsor esports gaming leagues
Gaining a profound understanding of the gaming product, market functionality, and value chain equips you with customer know-how and demographic data. This knowledge helps fuel a data-driven assessment of the underlying market potential - in essence, it's your goose with the golden egg! The Evergent Monetization Platform can provide the tools to analyze abundant customer data and derive valuable insights that fuel your growth trajectory.
Building tailor-made strategies to engage your digital audiences expands customer commitment and builds a smooth communication channel. With the Evergent Offer Management module, you have the power to design dynamic and highly personalized promotional campaigns that cater to your customer needs.
Esports sporting leagues open quite a lot of in-game monetization opportunities, community spaces for viewers and gamers to monetize their game points. Gaining an in-depth understanding of mixed monetization models and how to implement them becomes key to your in-game monetization strategy.
To learn how you can identify opportunities and augment profitability through a deeper understanding of revenue monetization and key customer trends, book a call with our team of experts today.
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