Esports Success Comes From Turning Players Into Viewers

Big Shot is your forever sports game and a time sink for countless sports fans worldwide - not just players and streamers, but esports viewers too.

Turning game players into viewers - $100B + business

Let's focus on esports viewers and players - the green and blue bar on the left of this chart.

In the chart, we see that there are:

a) more video game players than American football players at all levels and;b) more video game viewers than American football viewers. The most important thing in this chart is the massive number of global video game players that are not yet viewers - that big blue bar. Turning gamers into viewers is a multi-billion dollar business. Growing the number of video game viewers will require a diversity of games, great storytelling, a culture of celebrity, advanced technology, and games built with turning game players into viewers in mind. For each new esports viewer with the right kind of game and narrative new advertisers and dollars flow to esports.

Key esports takeways - 1. turn players into viewers + 2. advertising friendly = $ increase.

Mobile spending leads revenue and esports viewership

It may be impossible to talk about investing in esports without talking about China. Not just because companies might want to do business in China, but because China tells us where the esports industry is headed.

Looking just at China, Newzoo estimates there are 619.5 million players spending $37.9 billion in 2018. China is the biggest games market in the world. Mobile games make up t $23 billion of 60% of the gaming revenue in China, followed by PC and console games. Data indicates that 60% of China’s urban females (55% males) purchased skins and other in-app digital items. Specifically on esports viewing, over two-thirds (68%) of the Chinese urban online population watch gaming videos with 56% watching on their mobile device.

Key China takeaways - 1. mobile, 2. in-app purchases, 3. females

ePlay Strategy

The company is focused on strong partnerships and maintaining competitive technology and marketing advantages over all comers. With that in mind here is some information we can share.

NBA China has been established with the league playing a small number of games in China each year. NBA players are working with Chinese media and brands. Chinese NBA rights holders, including some of the biggest media conglomerates and technology companies in the world, are investing heavily in NBA and looking to amortize their investments across all forms of media including gaming.

ePlay is working hand-in-hand with these companies creating a major competitive advantage. NBA is the biggest sport in China in terms of revenue and popularity. ePlay has recently accelerated its work with strong partners that align with fans of the NBA and the CBA, the Chinese domestic professional basketball league headed by former NBA star Yao Ming, with the goal of distribution and marketing of Big Shot games in China. Type of game and partnerships are both very important for Chinese regulators.

ePlay Intellectual Property

On esports, the company has purpose built the Big Shot mobile game and its features to lead the next generation of esports. Building augmented reality, sports, celebrity, storytelling, product placement, and social media into its flagship game like no other game in market has done. ePlay's technology, media, marketing partners provide access to audience, advertising, celebrity, marketing, and revenue in multiple countries.

As the Chinese data indicates, mobile streaming is growing quickly and dominates. As the ​​chart above indicates, the biggest opportunity is turning game players into viewers. From its beginnings, ePlay has been turning sports fans into viewers and winning awards for doing so. As game developers coming from the entertainment and sports, ePlay baked these ideas and intellectual property into Big Shot from the start.

Key ePlay takeaways - 1. owns advanced esports and game technology, 2. track-record of turning fans into viewers.