CYNOPSISeSPORTS & GAMING
02.16.17
It’s Thursday, February 16, 2017, and this is your weekly early morning eSports & Gaming brief.
European-based GINX eSportsTV is now targeting North America. Canadian broadcaster Super Channel locked in a deal with the network to create and distribute a new 24-hour channel for video game fans, serving up a healthy slice of live eSports events, news and gaming lifestyle programming. The new channel will be part of Super Channel’s four multiplexed channels and will launch across Canada in the spring/summer of 2017.
“This exciting new venture allows us to welcome Canadian viewers into the fast growing international ‘realm’ of GINX eSportsTV. Together with Super Channel we have the right combination of reach, relationships and local programming to create a channel that will bring the best of global eSports to Canada and equally to enrich our international channels with programming from the vibrant Canadian eSports community,” said GINX eSportsTV CEO Michiel Bakker. “Canada has long been in our sights. It consistently represents a global top 10 eSports nation and is home to great eSports competitions and competitors. We are over the moon to soon be able to reach out to them.”
The GINX/Super Channel deal was brought together by FanTrust Entertainment Strategies president Catherine Warren, a consultant to both companies, who announced the news today at the ESports BAR global marketplace event in Cannes.
COMPETITION
Nielsen weighed in on 2016 and esports as part of its forthcoming annual Year in Sports report, noting that its data showed that 83% of the avid eSports fans are male, with 78% of them between the ages of 1334. Breaking down the audiences further, the report shows that almost 60% of avid eSports fans have a household income of over $50,000, and that 85% of eSports fans 21+ have attended college. With a nod toward the NBA’s recent announcement that it would be launching an esports league, Nielsen noted the amount of overlap between fan bases, with NBA fans 114% more likely than the general population to be eSports fans. The full report can be found here.
Meanwhile, Newzoo announced the release of its own 2017 Global Esports Market Report, projecting that the esports economy will grow to $696 million in 2017 for year-on-year growth of 41.3%. Brands are expected to spend $517 million, broken down into $155 million on advertising, $266 million on sponsorship, and a further $95 million on media rights. Meanwhile, the global esports audience will reach 385 million in 2017, consisting of 191 million Esports Enthusiasts and a further 194 million Occasional Viewers. North America ranks as the largest esports market, with revenues of $257 million in 2017 and projected to double to reach $607 million by 2020.
The Esports Championship Series announced plans to open its third season of ECS Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with the ECS Open Qualifiers, starting Saturday, followed by ECS Developmental League qualification contest spanning Feb. 28-March 16. Through the ECS Open Qualifier process, four teams from each region will qualify for the ECS Development League, with the other four teams invited by the ECS. The top two teams from North America and Europe will square off against the relegated teams from ECS Season 2 in best-of-five sets. In addition, ECS is bringing back the Community Caster Challenge, allowing rising stars of esports casting to fly to the ECS studio and cast live matches of ECS Season 3.
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Canada’s Cineplex is launching a video gaming league for kids to play LEGO Dimensions: Battle Arena, with play taking place in theaters across the country. Play begins on March 4 at select venues across Canada, including Cineplex Cinemas and will continue weekly on March 11, 18 and 25.
Key playmakers are teaming up to launch the Nevada Esports Alliance in a move to advance the development of the state as a global esports hub. In addition to Seth Schorr, CEO of Fifth Street Gaming, other founding members are set to include Brett Abarbanel of UNLV’s International Gaming Institute, Chris Grove of Narus Advisors and Eilers & Krejcik Gaming and Jennifer Roberts of UNLV’s International Center for Gaming Regulation with members that include the Esports Integrity Coalition (ESIC), GameCo, Leet, Millennial Esports, Narus Advisors, Unikrn, the UNLV International Center for Gaming Regulation, the UNLV International Gaming Institute and William Hill US.
President Donald Trump’s executive order barring immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries may see Valve move its annual Dota 2 tournament, The International, out of the US. At a press event, Valve’s Erik Johnson noted that any new restrictions on visitor visas would likely have a negative effect on the tournament, which has been held in Seattle.
Nintendo continues to plot the map for Splatoon 2 to serve as an esport, announcing that the upcoming title will support LAN Play and feature a new Private Battle Spectator View option. The spectator view will let non-players observe an eight-player Private Battle, and allow them to “act as camera operators” in order to check out the action.
Nazara Games is investing $20 million to launch a new esports league in India that will feature games such as Dota 2 and CS:GO. Nazara said it will invest the funds over the next five years in the league, which will be a subsidiary of Nazara Technologies.
DreamHack detailed plans for the DreamHack Smash Championship 2017 season, lining up $100,000 for Smash tournaments during our 2017 LAN events. Six DreamHack events will host Smash tournaments; four in North America (beginning with DreamHack Austin starting April 28) along with two in Sweden.
INSIGHTS
Source: Superdata
TEAMS
Delaware North, parent company of the Boston Bruins and the TD Garden, locked in a strategic partnership with the esports team Splyce, which currently competes in the likes of League of Legends, Call of Duty, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, Starcraft 2, Gears of War and Super Smash Brothers Melee. “A major focus at Splyce is the application of traditional sports knowledge into our growing esports industry,” said Marty Strenczewilk, CEO and president of Splyce. “This partnership with Delaware North allows us unfettered access to championship-caliber training staff, expert guidance on key areas of monetization and rock-solid infrastructure that can allow us to skyrocket our growth and maturation as a global sports franchise. We are equally excited about the opportunity to rally one of the most passionate and loyal local fan-bases in professional sports into a legion of Splyce fans. With these powerful resources behind us, Splyce is equipped to become the premier esports team in the world.”
Italian Serie A football team AS Roma is getting in on the esports action, announcing plans to join competitive gaming for FIFA by signing Aman Seddiqi, Sam Carmody and Nicolo Mirra to represent the team at tournaments and event. The club will now compete in tournaments against major Europe sides including Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City, Ajax, Valencia, Sporting Clube de Portugal and Galatasaray. To drive success, Roma partnered with Fnatic to power the club’s eSports division and offer support for training, events and provide all eSports-related logistical knowledge to nurture the club’s players.
Russian firm Strongbow Investments is now owner of the M19 League of Legends team. The franchise, previously known as Albus NoX Luna, will now see an influx of capital. Yahoo eSports reports that the team will now look to expand into titles such as Dota and CS:GO.
PLATFORMS
Backlash against PewDiePie’s recent videos featuring anti-Semitic imagery has now seen the YouTube star lose partnerships with the Disney-owned Maker Studios as well as YouTube. Maker Studios said Monday that it had cut off its relationship with Felix Kjellberg, while YouTube noted Tuesday that it had canceled the release of his upcoming series Scare PewDiePie Season 2, and dropped him from its premier advertising program. “Although Felix has created a following by being provocative and irreverent, he clearly went too far in this case, and the resulting videos are inappropriate,’’ a Maker Studios spokeswoman said in a statement on Monday to the Wall Street Journal. “Maker Studios has made the decision to end our affiliation with him going forward.”
Twitch opened the door to Communities, described as an “open beta directory that allows creators and viewers to better discover and share great content based on their specific interests.” The initiative allows users to self-organize into interest- or activity-based spaces that help streamers connect with their most relevant audience, and help viewers find the content they are most interested in. "We’ve heard from our streamers and viewers that they want the freedom to form specific groups, organizing around topics such as speedrunning, esports, cosplay, and painting,” said Sheila Raju, Product Marketing Manager, Twitch. "With Communities, we are giving our users the power to create groups of their choosing, while providing creators with another tool to expand their audiences. If you have an interest that’s shared among others, Communities is where that collective can live." Features include a community directory, a stream well, personalization and moderation tools.
Minute Media, parent company of 90min and 12up, announced the closing of a $15 million investment round, bringing its total funding since inception to $60 million. The proceeds will serve to power Minute Media’s expansion into global markets and include the introduction of an esports brand, launching in April with an eye to leverage key event and league rights, team relationships and several innovative video and editorial formats. The company has grown from 30 million monthly users to 70 million over the last year.
MARKETING
Which game title drew the most media mentions in 2016? According to ICO Partners, Blizzard’s Overwatch reaped the rewards in industry press. The company’s internal numbers found that the title dominated the competition with around 75,000 mentions, receiving more than twice as much coverage as second-place finisher Pokemon Go. Rounding out the top five were Final Fantasy XV, Battlefield 1 and Doom.
LA-based digital advertising agency Modop unveiled a new partnership with the Agency for Professional Esports that will see the company leverage APE’s roster of esports stars to boost brand activations and launch campaigns that expand brands’ messaging and outreach to their audiences. “Professional gamers are the next generation of athletes. Children whose parents had Michael Jordan, David Beckham and Tiger Woods are looking at eSports athletes in the same way as future sports celebrities. Recognizing this unique vision, we are working with Modop to help connect brands with this valuable audience in the most human way possible,” said Jason Moore, president of APE.
National sports and entertainment marketing agency CHARGE is launching an eSports division titled CHARGE eSports along with a new online resource center for aspiring eSports athletes and teams. CHARGE eSports will look to help athletes and teams by providing vital business support, branding, marketing and public relations services. As part of its commitment to eSports, CHARGE has launched eSportsCareerMode.com as a free resource center.
Asus ROG announced that the brand will now serve as the primary hardware provider for Ninjas in Pyjamas. Derek Yu, ROG Global Marketing Director, noted that Asus ROG was "very excited to join forces with NIP and to supply them with the latest ROG gear."
INDUSTRY
The Entertainment Software Association released its Video Games in the 21st Century: The 2017 Report, noting that employment in the video game industry grew at an annual rate of 2.9%, more than double the rate of the U.S. job market. In addition, the report notes that there are 2,322 video game developer locations across all 50 states and the District of Columbia along with 526 publisher locations across 44 states. Overall, there are now 65,678 workers directly employed at game software publisher and developer locations in the US. The country’s game company industry’s value added to U.S. GDP was more than $11.7 billion in 2015.
Activision Blizzard saw 2016 deliver revenue of $6.61 billion for the full year, according to its full-year earnings report. That marks a boost of 42% over 2015’s total of $4.66 billion with digital revenue providing $4.87 billion of the pot. Net revenue for 2016 came in at $2.43 billion, up 39%.
HTC announced plans to release a new mobile virtual reality headset to accompany the Vive. In an interview with CNET, HTC CFO, Chia-lin Chang, noted that the company has a "good plan in terms of combining mobility with VR."
POWER PLAYERS DreakHack’s Sara Lieser
Las Vegas once again serves as center stage for the world of esports this weekend as DreamHack Masters hits the city for a CS:GO clash that will see 16 teams battle for a $450,000 championship taking place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. The stop marks the newest home for a swelling DreamHack lineup that includes additional North American stops on Atlanta, Austin, Montreal and Denver this year.
As the world’s largest computer festival continues its upward trajectory, Cynopsis caught up with Sara Lieser, Head of Sales, North America at DreamHack to talk about the arrival to Las Vegas, the company’s expansion, and lessons in sponsor activation.
On growth: If you go back to the beginning of DreamHack 23 years ago, it started in Europe and as we increased our broadcasts and streams, the bulk of our viewership just under 30% – comes from the US. That has been a trend for years and because of that, it was a natural decision to extend our footprint with festivals to the US. This past year, the top in Austin marked our first festival in the US and it was a wildly successful event form a lot of different engagement levels. From an attendance perspective, we had nearly 25,000 people come through the event during its two days. Based on that success, we decided to explore other cities including Las Vegas.
On the success of DreamHack festivals: There are a few things that have made us stand out. First of all, one word people use to describe DreamHack events is grassroots. It’s been an organic growth throughout our history and the people who have attended our events are extremely loyal so that has created a community. Those people live and breathe the DreamHack brand, which makes it believable and they know we aren’t in the scene because the industry is suddenly hot.
On opportunities for brands: There is something for everybody at DreamHack, it isn’t just esports. We are pulling in a lot of people that have interests that aren’t just esports, cosplay or technology. That’s where the opportunity lies. Brands want to reach out to consumers beyond just gaming and a lot of our gamers are also athletes or food enthusiasts or love to travel. Their interests are vast and partners have opportunities to activate beyond game brands.
On the keys to successful activation: Authenticity is the key. The biggest thing is connecting with our audience. You can’t just tune in to a DreamHack event and slap your brand or logo onto a banner. You have to think of it in more of a value-proposition way with the audience that’s there. While Geico has not partnered with DreamHack yet, they have done a really good job connecting to games that speak to the community. At DreamHack, meanwhile, FOX Studios was looking to market one of their new movies and created a whole set within the festival in Sweden that mimicked the movie that they were branding. They activated on a number of fronts, but if you came to their set, you would get a coupon to attend the premier screening of their new movie. It ended up being extremely successful. What doesn’t do well are brands that push their brand without connecting to our audience. There are certain brands
On the company’s commitment to the city: We are making a long-term commitment to the US as a whole and there are so many things about Las Vegas that are aligned with who Dreamhack is from an entertainment standpoint. Las Vegas is making a huge investment into the esports community and we got in early and look forward to a long partnership with the city.
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Trivia: According to the Guinness World Records, which North American-based franchise holds the record as the all-time highest-earning esports team as of August 2016? (Email chris-sports@cynopsis.com with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)
Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: This Disney Princess actress also voiced the treacherous Lucy Stillman in the Assassin’s Creed series. Who was she? Answer: Kristen Bell. Kudos: Chris Davies-Virgin/London; Danny Araque/NY; Joe Olson/DC; Lorin Halpert-Barcraft United/Toronto; Andy Pittman-TAMU/College Station; Jason Morrow-Toyota/Houston; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union/Burbank; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA.
Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cynopsis | eSports @VegasandVine
02.16.17
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The post 02/16/17: North America gets first 24-hour esports channel; Nielsen’s esports year in review; DreamHack talks expansion pack appeared first on Cynopsis Media.