Esport
Esports (electronic sports) is a collective term used to describe organized, competitive, video gaming.
Esports (electronic sports) is a collective term used to describe organized, competitive, video gaming. 24
Not every video game is considered an esport (e.g., the Sims, opens in a new tab). Examples of esport games include tactical (or first person) shooter), multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), fighting, real-time strategy (RTS), and sports SIM (simulation games of traditional sports e.g. FIFA and NBA). 24
An emerging genre is also simulated sports and/or ‘fitness gaming’ (e.g. Hado, opens in a new tab, Zwift, opens in a new tab). These genres replicate sport and physical activity on a digital platform, where participants compete or train with an online community. 25
There is considerable debate around whether esports can be considered ‘sports’ and if they should be recognised as such (which can facilitate new avenues of funding and the potential to engage more people). 26, 27
Esport advocates argue that it meets many of the criteria for traditional sport recognition. They are physical (require skill/fine motor control), competitive (have winners and losers within detailed rules and regulations), and organised (tournaments, national and international organising bodies). 28, 29
The value of the esport industry (billions of dollars, with multiple professional leagues, hundreds of thousands of professional players and fans, and even purpose-built stadiums) and the rise in popularity of simulated sport and augmented/virtual platforms has led to further pressure on sports organisations and governments to consider recognition and/or integration of these activities as ‘sports’, including the potential for inclusion in the Olympic and Paralympic Games programs. 30, 31, 32, 33
For more information see the Esports topic.
Further reading and resources
- Esports, opens in a new tab, Wikipedia, (accessed 10 January 2024). Esports (also known as electronic sports, e-sports, or eSports) is a form of sport competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams.
- Is An Esport Really a Sport?, opens in a new tab Phil Birch and Edgar Chekera, Psychology Today, (19 April 2020). Although a somewhat controversial debate, an esport can be considered a sport. With this consideration enters the interest of sport-related disciplines investigating how they can best fit within the esports industry. This includes physiotherapy, nutrition and psychology, to name a few.
- Esports is the future of all sports – here’s why, opens in a new tab, Andy Miah, Chair in Science Communication and Future Media, University of Salford, The Conversation, (23 October 2019). The future of all sports is esports. That may sound like a bold statement but there is growing evidence to support it. Today’s spectators and participants expect to be digitally engaged while they watch. And the most effective way to deliver digital engagement is through “gamification” – the transformation of watching into playing.
- As E-Sports Grow, So Do Their Homes, opens in a new tab, C.J. Hughes, New York Times, (28 May 2019). The $10 million Esports Stadium Arlington in Texas, which opened in November in the city’s convention center, is the largest e-sports center in North America, with flexible seating, a state-of-the-art broadcast studio and an 85-foot-long LED wall. And in Philadelphia, developers are planning to build Fusion Arena, the first new United States construction to be dedicated to professional gaming, offering 3,500 seats and a training facility.
- What is eSports? A look at an explosive billion-dollar industry, opens in a new tab, AJ Willingham, CNN, (27 August 2018). eSports describes the world of competitive, organized video gaming. Competitors from different leagues or teams face off in the same games that are popular with at-home gamers: Fortnite, League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, Overwatch and Madden NFL, to name a few. These gamers are watched and followed by millions of fans all over the world, who attend live events or tune in on TV or online. Streaming services like Twitch allow viewers to watch as their favorite gamers play in real time, and this is typically where popular gamers build up their fandoms.
- The Future of Australian Sport. The second report: Megatrends shaping the sport sector over coming decades - 2022, CSIRO/Australian Sports Commission, (December 2022). This report identifies six megatrends that will shape the Australian sport sector over the coming decade and beyond and provides a decadal update on the first ground-breaking report, The Future of Australian Sport: Megatrends shaping the sports sector over coming decades, released by CSIRO and the Australian Sports Commission in 2013. Several of the identified trends highlight the rise in modified, social, and virtual sport engagement.
- Olympic Agenda 2020+5: 15 recommendations, opens in a new tab, International Olympic Committee, (May 2020). Recommendation 9: Encourage the development of virtual sports and further engage with video gaming communities. As these virtual sports develop, the roles and responsibilities of IFs around virtual sports will increase. Therefore, it is important that IFs ensure good governance and necessary regulations around sports simulations (cf. recommendation 1).The objective of this direct engagement is to encourage sports participation and promote the Olympic values with a special focus on youth. In addition, these products and experiences can fill the gap between virtual sports and the Olympic Games, creating valuable brand associations with IFs and their respective virtual sports. This could include looking at feasibility studies to anticipate potential proposals from IFs to include their respective physical virtual sports in the Olympic programme for future editions of the Olympic Games. Video games are bringing communities together with people gathering around their passion. By entering strategic partnerships with those communities at a regional level, sports organisations can reach youth demographics outside of their direct environment and get these youth engaged in sport while reaching out to new populations (cf. recommendation 12). As elite esports and gaming competitors are relatively new to the highly competitive environment, they have more limited access to resources than athletes in traditional sports. The IOC recognises these challenges and aims to adapt various existing tools and resources to support them in different fields such as gender equality, mental and physical health, competition integrity and career transition.
- IF Gaming and Esports Strategy, opens in a new tab, Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), (September 2019). This report aims to deliver a clear understanding of the gaming and esports market landscape, to support IFs in devising a structured approach on how to address strategic questions and most importantly, to outline strategic positioning options to help IFs define a way forward. The research has provided extensive information for our various internal groups and resulted in some recommendations for our IFs.
- Major determinants for International Federations to adopt esports as part of their digitalisation strategies, opens in a new tab, Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), (2019). The significant economic potential of the esports business has led many IFs to show interest in taking advantage of the opportunities presented by the esports world. They have begun to consider building their own esports platforms and electronic versions of their sports. However, it is clear that the individual characteristics of all sports are not equal in terms of their easy adaptation to an esports version. The purpose of this study is to answer a key question: what are the major determinants for these IFs to decide whether or not to adopt esports as part of their digitalisation strategies and to propose some recommendations for the IFs’ successful implementation of an esports platform? The results obtained through the questionnaire found that the majority of the IFs is currently undertaking esports projects with a basic understanding of what esports exactly is before they make a final decision, even though most of them remain at an early stage. Regarding the decision-making at the organisational level, the major determinants for IFs are generally based on economic and rational arguments. Interestingly, most IFs expect to see “transfer effects” from their proposed esports engagement to support the development of their existing sport offerings.
- Actually, Esports Is Sport: A Response to Parry’s (2019) Misguided View, opens in a new tab, Michael Naraine, Sports Innovation Journal, Volume 2, pp.33-44, (2021). Esports should not simply be discounted because it looks different than traditional sport offerings, Olympic or otherwise (Cunningham et al., 2018). With a more stringent look, naysayers like Parry would be surprised to learn that esports actually does meet their defining characteristics of traditional sport (Walton et al., 2020). Furthermore, upon closer inspection, Parry’s other pillar appears quite weak. In fact, Parry provides no considerable, conclusive evidence to suggest stakeholders are advocating for esports to be an Olympic sport. Rather, the evidence suggests that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympic Movement is trying to capitalize on esports’ growth and salience among youth demographics (IOC, 2019; Tarrant, 2018). Consequently, it is important to counter Parry’s inaccurate claims and provide further color to an important topic that will become more prominent with the ever-increasing digitization and virtualization of our world (Mastromartino et al., 2020). Thus, the following rebuttal to Parry’s (2019) piece highlights the instability of both foundations, and emphasizes why it is important to not discredit new sport forms without a substantive argument.
- eSports – Competitive sports or recreational activity?, opens in a new tab Hallmann, Kirstin; Giel, Thomas, Sport Management Review, Volume 21(1), (February 2018). eSports is growing around the globe, with more and more individuals are engaged as players or spectators. In this paper, the authors reflect on whether eSports can be considered as sport based on evaluating five characteristics of sport and assessing them for eSports. Currently, eSports are not a sport but there is the potential that eSports will become a sport. Different opportunities how marketers and managers can attend to eSports are outlined.
- Virtual(ly) athletes: Where eSports fit within the definition of “Sport”, opens in a new tab, Jenny S, Manning D, Keiper M and Olrich T, Quest, Volume 69(1), pp.1-18, (2017). The worldwide popularity of competitive video gaming has opened the question, “is it sport”. Competitive video gaming fits within (at least in part) most of the philosophical and sociological definitions of ‘sport’. It incorporates play, organisation, competition, skill, physicality (i.e. to some degree), has a broad following and recognition by institutions (e.g. government, education, etc.). With the decline of the percentage of the population (particularly youth) engaging in physical activity, eSport has the potential to bridge the gap between sedentary activities and physical sport through motion-based video gaming. In the United States, several universities have added video gaming to their suite of intercollegiate sports. The US government now recognises (for employment and income tax purposes) professional eSports-persons in the same way as professional sports-persons in other disciplines (e.g. baseball, football, basketball, golf, etc.).
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