More and more people are seeing video games as becoming more than a childhood hobby. eSports are generally defined as organized gaming competitions where players can compete for cash prizes.
Typically, game genres such as fighting, first-person shooters, multiplayer online battle arenas, or massively multiplayer games have a large eSports background and following. Some of the most popular games include Counter Strike, League of Legends, Dota 2, and Overwatch. In 2018, these games held their largest tournaments ever and drew in 190.1 million total viewing hours. Market research firm Newzoo said that total viewership increased by 6.9% year-over-year and the firm noted that the growth was predominantly driven by the increase in viewers from ELeague Major: Boston for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, The International (Dota 2), and the Overwatch League Finals. On the other hand, League of Legends World Champion viewership declined from 86 million hours in 2017 to 81.1 million hours in 2018. Despite the decline, League of Legends’ parent company, Riot Games, witnessed its Twitch channel viewership increase. The channel streamed for a duration of 304 hours to an average of 93,000 Twitch viewers. In total, Riot Games’ Twitch channel generated 28.1 million hours of live viewership, increasing by 11.7% year-over-year, according to VentureBeat. Now, with the growth of the eSports industry, more viewers are tuning into live streaming channels to watch professional eSports players compete against one another. Many viewers get the exhilarating thrill of watching professionals play their favorite video game. And as a result, more average players are attempting to enter into the eSports scene as well. According to data compiled by Verified Market Research, the global eSports market was valued at USD 915.30 Million in 2018. By 2025, the market is projected to reach USD 2.97 Billion while registering a CAGR of 18.35% during the forecast period from 2018 to 2025. UMG Media Ltd. (TSX-V: ESPT), NVIDIA Corporation’s (NASDAQ: NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD), Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE), Tencent Holding Ltd. (OTC: TCEHY)
The prolific growth of the eSports industry has attracted many sponsors and advertisers, similar to sports. For instance, the NBA is sponsored by many large corporations such as Adidas and Foot Locker. Similarly, the Premier League has attracted top sponsors including EA, Nike, and Barclays. Typically, companies like Nike and Adidas sponsor athletic sports organizations. However, the two completely reshaped the perspective of sports after signing sponsorships within the eSports industry. Last year, Adidas signed a deal with two FIFA online teams: Lyon EDG of Olympique Lyonnais and Edward Gaming. Similarly, Nike signed a deal with China’s League of Legends Pro League earlier this year to supply all teams with clothing and footwear. Moreover, individual players have also received sponsorships due to their fame. Energy sports drink company Red Bull has even signed deals with prominent players within the industry such as popular Fortnite streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and dominant Street Fighter player Darryl “Snake Eyez” Lewis. Furthermore, investments into the industry are further pushing the eSports scene into mainstream media. In October 2018, eSports team Cloud9 became the most valuable team after raising USD 50 Million in a Series B funding round, pushing its valuation to USD 310 Million. Moreover, NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan joined the ownership group for Team Liquid after the team raised USD 26 Million in a Series C funding round. Likewise, popular rapper Drake invested into 100Thieves during a Series A funding round, making him and producer Scooter Braun co-owners with Chief Executive Officer and Founder Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag. “When I look at 2018, I feel like it was the year that esports really started cracking into the mainstream,” Jack Etienne, owner of team Cloud9, told CNBC. “To me it feels like we’ve broken a barrier that we’ve never attained before in esports.”
UMG Media Ltd. provided earlier last week an update, on its operations. The Corporation announces that it will commence trading on the TSX Venture Exchange today, July 19, 2019, under the trading symbol ESPT. UMG is also pleased to provide an update on its operations.
UMG continues to expand its esports original content business. Through its distribution channels UMG continues to expand its user base. UMG produces and distributes the following on going series at its studio in St Louis:
Minecraft Mondays
Emergence Days – Gears of Wars
Keemstar Fridays
Call of Duty Weekly Rumble
With notable streamers such as Ninja, NICKMERCS, PewDiePie,and DrLupo, UMG is proud to announce that they have generated in excess of 20,000,000 live views on their platforms of its broadcasts.
UMG’s user base continues to grow, in the second quarter of 2019 the registered user base has increased by 70,000 to over 2,200,000. The increased user base has added to the daily tournaments played through the UMG network. Over 18,000,000 matches have now been played through the UMG platform. The matches include daily tournaments, season ladders and individual cash matches. The majority of the matches played on the site are cash based. From these matches well over $3,000,000 in prizes have been paid out.
UMG is also excited about a number of the upcoming and recently completed live events. UMG has plans to broadcast a portion of the weekly Keemstar Friday Series live from various locations in the United States including Las Vegas.
UMG is a premier esports company in North America. UMG has operations involved in live tournaments, online esports contests, casino esports operations, creation and distribution of original content and esports tournament operations through its proprietary tournament management app. Readers can learn more about UMG and its esports offerings at www.umggaming.com