Factors affecting the commercial value of professional e-sports?

The commercial value of e-sports events is gradually coming to the fore

Since the birth of League of Legends, Chinese teams have stood on the podium for the first time at the Global Finals.On November 3, the 2018 League of Legends Global Finals (hereinafter referred to as the "S8"), Chinese team IG's victory in the championship has caused a lot of players to discuss the issue.

The growing number of sponsors behind S8 is proof of the commercial value of e-competition events.

The League of Legends Global Finals, hosted by Fist Games, is the highest level as well as the most gold-rich of all League of Legends competitions, and has so far hosted 8 editions of the S1-S8*** competition. In this year's competition, due to the continuous development of the e-sports industry and continue to generate a high degree of heat, many capital also aimed at this field, and through sponsorship with a view to obtaining better marketing value. Beijing Business News reporter learned that the S8 **** to attract about 50 sponsors, sponsorship not only covers the simple sponsorship of the tournament derivation, but also includes sponsorship of the relevant clubs and their players. Among them, the three clubs participating in the tournament RNG, EDG and IG have 11, 7 and 3 sponsors respectively, while RNG's player Uzi was announced as the spokesman by Nike during the tournament.

China's e-sports industry is still in a period of rapid development

According to the statistics of the Market Outlook Forecast and Investment Strategy Planning Analysis Report of the E-Sports Industry released by the Prospective Industry Research Institute, China's e-sports market scale exceeded 77 billion yuan by 2017, reaching 77.28 billion yuan. It is expected that the size of China's eSports market will exceed 88 billion yuan in 2018, with an estimated net increase of 35 billion yuan in two years. Among them, the main revenue of the e-sports industry still comes from game revenue, accounting for 93%.

In which the market size of e-sports events is 1.06 billion yuan, accounting for 1.2%. Compared with the proportion of traditional sports events, the revenue of e-sports events accounted for a low proportion of the e-sports industry, and there is still huge room for growth. As the influence of headline e-sports events has been comparable to that of traditional sports events, the number of popular e-sports events continues to increase, and the progress of commercialization of e-sports events is accelerating, it is expected that the future market size will exceed 10 billion yuan.

Statistics and forecast of China's e-sports market size, 2016-2018

Statistics of the main revenue components of the e-sports industry in 2018

There is huge room for the development of China's e-sports users

Over the past three years, China's growth rate of e-sports users has continued to remain above 20%, with a growth in the size of the user base of more than 100 million people. The main reason is, firstly, the increased inclination of gaming enterprises to e-sports games, the increase in the number of e-sports events, and the gradual enhancement of their influence; secondly, the organization of many headline e-sports events such as the League of Legends World Finals in China, which has contributed to the rapid growth of the scale of e-sports users in China. The size of the population covered by e-sports in China is close to 500 million people, these are potential e-sports user groups, the scale of e-sports users still has huge growth space, in the past three years, China's e-sports user growth rate has remained above 20%, and it is expected that the scale of China's e-sports users in 2018 will reach 430 million people.

Statistics and growth forecast of China's e-sports user scale from 2014-2018

E-sports game development situation: China's e-sports game market is developing rapidly, with a revenue of more than 70 billion yuan

In the e-sports industry chain, e-sports games are the core. On the one hand, eSports games are one of the most economically efficient parts of the industry. in 2017, the actual sales revenue of China's eSports games market exceeded 70 billion yuan, and has maintained rapid growth over the past few years, and is expected to increase further due to the impact of factors such as the launch of "STEAM China" in the future. On the other hand, eSports games also occupy the upper reaches of the entire industrial chain, and can generate explosive events, which also require the authorization of game products.

Chinese e-sports game market revenue statistics and growth, 2014-2017

Analysis of the commercialization value of e-sports tournaments

1. The influence of individual tournaments is comparable to that of traditional sports. E-sports events have a huge fan base and a high degree of user activity, and the influence of individual events in some headline e-sports games has been able to catch up with that of traditional sports events. Take the just-concluded League of Legends mid-season tournament as an example, the tournament's performance in social media performance, video broadcasting, and audience size are all close to or comparable to the NBA.Influence is the basis of the commercial value of the tournament, eSports tournaments influence is comparable to that of traditional sports, which is conducive to its future commercialization and to increase the size of the eSports tournament market.

2. There are more than 500 popular e-sports events throughout the year. The number of popular e-sports events has exceeded 500. With the increase in the number of e-sports games and the rise in the scale of e-sports users, the number of e-sports tournaments is expected to increase further in the future. Tournaments are the foundation of e-sports, and an increase in the number of tournament bases can not only directly enhance the scale of the e-sports market, but also help to explore the commercialization of e-sports in different ways, thus accelerating the maturity of the e-sports market.

Analysis of obstacles to commercialization of e-sports events

1. Failure to disseminate through mainstream media such as TV hinders the commercialization of e-sports events. Among the many obstacles to the commercialization of e-sports events, the failure to communicate through mainstream media such as TV is an important one. This not only directly affects the income from broadcasting licenses for e-sports events, but also has a negative impact on the dissemination of e-sports events.

Currently, domestic games and related programs cannot be distributed through open-circuit TV channels, while digital pay channels and set-top boxes are slow to promote and have insufficient influence. The main distribution channel for e-sports events in China is live broadcasting platforms, but these platforms themselves have many drawbacks, including user coverage and chaos in the live broadcasting market. The limited distribution channels will affect the commercialization of e-sports events and reduce their commercial value.

Meanwhile, in some overseas countries, TV broadcasting has become the main support for the rapid development of e-sports in overseas countries, and e-sports events disseminated through mainstream media have a large audience scope and receive high attention, coupled with the excellent production of the events, which makes the commercial value of the events higher than that of the domestic market. Therefore, exploring the development of TV broadcasting with wider coverage is crucial for the commercialization of eSports events in China.

2. Games have been criticized by mainstream media many times, hindering the commercialization of e-sports events. The game is the core of e-sports, and its brand image will also have an impact on the brand of e-sports events. In 2017, a number of mainstream media published a series of articles on the issue of "addicted to games", which led to the public's skepticism about the game, and the subsequent events became more and more intense, and even made it to the microblogging hot searches for a number of times.

These incidents have not only affected the image of gaming companies, but also the related e-sports events. First, it affects the development of the e-sports event itself, and the support of resources from the government and capital may be discounted, even affecting the entry of outstanding talents. Secondly, it will affect the commercial value of the event. Under the negative public opinion about the game, some companies may stop or refuse to sponsor eSports events for the sake of maintaining their own brand image.

Analysis of the Development Trend of E-Sports Events

1. Unionization. It has been the development direction of e-sports events for a long time to get closer to traditional sports events. The depth and breadth of e-sports are far less than that of traditional events, and alliance is the necessary direction for the depth and breadth of e-sports events, and the alliance of e-sports is the key to the further development of e-sports events.

In the domestic e-sports events, the League of Legends Professional League was the first to implement the home-and-away system, which pushed the tournament towards unionization. On the one hand, the abolition of the promotion and relegation system of the tournament helps the clubs to strengthen the training of newcomers without the pressure of relegation. On the other hand, in terms of operation, there are many similarities with the structure of the NBA. The home-and-away system is implemented, and local club arenas are constructed in the home cities of clubs across the country to welcome teams from other cities and regions, and seats are increased through the "seat bidding" model, and the entire league ecology is fixed and will not be changed in principle.

The alliance and home/away system can provide more opportunities for gaming users to participate in offline matches and expand the influence of the tournament. At the same time, the team can also attract more fans from the local and neighboring areas through localized promotion, cultivating a sense of belonging to the fans and establishing a sense of regional honor, so as to increase its brand value. For the regions where the clubs are located, high-octane tournaments, clubs with large fan bases, combined with e-sports venues that serve as home grounds, can drive the development of the local and neighboring regions' economies and e-sports industries.

2. Commercialization. From the perspective of commercialization of e-sports, e-sports has been more than just tournaments, and creating benefits with tournaments is also the main purpose. With the development of e-sports, more and more sponsors and clubs have reached relevant cooperation, and the commercialization of e-sports is an inevitable trend. Nowadays, in China's e-sports market, the major sponsors from the previous wait-and-see into the current strong influx of the League of Legends professional tournaments, for example, the B station to buy professional teams, access to the league broadcasting rights, fun plus technology to buy nb clubs, and at the same time, the Toubo sports and the DAN team, the commercialization of the e-sports has also contributed to the progress and development of the relevant e-sports events. At the same time, e-sports players are widely noticed by the media and get more exposure, thus getting more and more attention from e-sports users and generating a star effect. With the star effect of e-sports players, companies can not only promote their own brands and establish a good corporate image, but also promote the spread of the brand among e-sports users.

Commercialization allows more people to join in, and now the commercialization of e-sports can create more jobs, such as game anchors, tournament commentators, tournament operators, etc. The number of people joining the e-sports industry is gradually increasing, and it is easier for e-sports to be recognized by the mainstream public. At the same time, commercialization can bring in revenue for the tournament to ensure that the tournament continues to be held for a long time.