The growing segment of millions of video game consumers are attracting highly profitable opportunities and investments for big-time firms such as Coca-Cola. Video games have been considered in the past as a form of entertainment to be enjoyed in homes. However, the rise in popularity of online media sharing sites (YouTube) and games such as Riot’s League of Legends, Call of Duty, and DOTA 2, has made the best video game players in the world be recognized in the spotlight by gamers, fans, and video game companies. With such staggering growth, eSports (electronics sports) has been created to cater the highly competitive and demanding need for competitive gaming throughout the world.
By the end of 2013, over $15 million will be rewarded as prize money to pro-gamers for their achievements in tournaments. Business firms began to notice this when fans started to pay money to view pro-gamers play competitively. Coca-Cola saw this opportunity and used the League of Legends World Championship to sponsor the event.
Through this analysis, the product life cycle for eSports is in its growth stage. Many big time firms and brands are now recognizing the vast potential for profit and are continuously investing to capture the untouched target market. For example, Coca-Cola agreed to create a new minor league for League of Legneds to cater the gamers with a greater gaming experience. Secondary data mining research indicates that a healthy 5 million players play League of Legends during peak times and shows a healthy demographic of males from ages 13-35.
I believe this growing trend will continue to expand. Riot’s ingenious marketing strategy which allows players to play the game for free has allowed everyone to access and play this game at anytime. With no pricing involved the benefits of playing this game far exceeds cost (pretty much 0 as no money is involved). With more firms to invest in this industry, the popularity of eSports will rise even more.
Source:
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/11/06/esports-sponsorships/?iid=SF_T_River
Further Reading:
http://www.destructoid.com/league-of-legends-has-a-new-coke-zero-sponsored-series-262951.phtml
League of Legends World Championship
Follow