SBJ Esports: IOC plants a flag in competitive gaming

The IOC, by most accounts, pulled off a successful debut of Olympic Esports Week in Singapore last week. It gives the esports industry, and its fans, renewed hope that the Olympic movement will get behind sanctioning competitive gaming and a federation to govern international esports. After all, the event comes just three years after the IOC said it would not recognize any group or organization as a governing body for esports.

In partnership with the Singapore Ministry of Culture, Community & Youth, Sport Singapore and the Singapore National Olympic Council, the IOC hosted over 100 players in competitive events such as virtual table tennis and virtual cycling, as well as exhibitions for Rocket League and Street Fighter VI. The exhibition strategy is one long used by the IOC, employed for sports like baseball, softball or several action sports events like snowboarding, surfing and skateboarding.

The common denominator between those action sports and esports? A much younger audience, which is something the Olympic Games has been missing.

The event was streamed on Olympics.com, and the audience was miniscule, particularly compared to global esports streaming (a peak viewership of just over 23,000 watched the Rocket League exhibition finals).

But that wasn't the goal of this foray by the IOC. It was planting a flag for the esports movement. The Singapore event, hosted at the Suntec Centre, was a major production , on par with the largest esports events. And now, the official IOC website even has an esports tab.

An encouraging litmus test

Some industry leaders believe Olympic Esports Week is just the first effort toward further legitimizing esports: “We were incredibly excited to be part of the first steps in establishing esports as an Olympic sport,” Gen.G Esports CEO Arnold Hur told SBJ. “Though this was just an exhibition event, we know, from experience in other Olympics-organized sports like the Asian Games that we've participated in, that this is an important first step. ... We hope to be able to come back in the future.”

The challenge for the IOC has always been in selecting games that represent its strong stance against animated violence (shooters, fighting games, etc.). The IOC understandably does not want to promote anything that features guns or violence and required those selections include at least some component that promotes a real-world sport that can be backed by an international sports federation. This explains why games such as Tic-Tac Bow (chosen by World Archery) and Virtual Taekwondo (the choice of World Taekwondo) were selected. --  Kevin Hitt

Last month during the Paris Major, third-party tournament organizer Blast launched the Blast.tv platform -- a move the company hopes can upgrade the viewing experience and lead to higher event revenues. Throughout the Major, Blast.tv accounted for a modest 5%-10% of the streaming numbers; however, the viewers they did capture seems to represent a more engaged audience. And Blast is good with that.

“For the first time we had done something of that scale, we were super-happy to see a very engaged, but minority, [audience]” which peaked at a little over 10% of the total viewership on Friday (May 19) of the Major. Out of the four teams playing in their quarterfinal match that day, three were decided underdogs -- which Chief Growth Officer Tom Greene tells SBJ is an indicator that the platform is resonating with diehard fans who are there to watch every match, not just the big-ticket teams.

According to Greene, the platform is truly bespoke, and could add more content offerings in the future. To further growth for this specific event, Blast retained the naming rights for the Major and included experience-enhancing features such as:

• Ad-free competition viewing

• 4K broadcasting

• Live statistics

• Engaging with CS:GO publisher Valve’s fan-favorite pick ’ems challenge on the platform

• Choosing drivers’ gamertags (thanks to a partnership with Alpine)

• Fantasy games in partnership with esports betting platform Unikrn

• Shoulder content (like shows on YouTube)

Since the Major, Greene says Blast has been seeing interest from other publishers about the platform. But significant challenges remain.

The main challenge going forward is to build Blast.tv into an “always on” platform. Currently, with the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player’s break in full swing, there’s no action to broadcast. In today’s “attention economy,” Blast.tv’s biggest hurdle is being forgotten by the fickle esports fan, who is more than likely navigating to Twitch to view matches. While Blast is fine with people watching on Twitch, it acknowledges that it’s going to have to add more incentives to make Blast.tv work. “We want people to watch our content on many platforms,” Greene tells SBJ. “For us it’s about offering a menu of options at this point.”

Another challenge Blast must face is how to effectively monetize the platform. There are no plans to paywall Blast.tv content. Greene views the winds shifting toward pay-per-view models as a possibility deep in the future, but that's not immediate solution to the financial problems tournament organizers face. -- Hunter Cooke

• FIBA, 2K and the NBA 2K League have a new deal that opens the door for an esports national team events calendar. Starting this fall, the creation of this first eFIBA window, in partnership with event organizer ESL FaceIt, will act as a lever in extending the reach of esports by making it more accessible to new players.

• Tennis Canada will make its foray into esports with a VR tournament later this year with the Tennis Esports game on the Meta Quest VR set, notes Esports Insider. Motorola’s Razr brand will be the headline sponsor.

• Former NFLer Ahman Green, now director of esports at Nebraska, tells Esports Illustrated that sports and esports are more similar than they are different.

• The Saudi Esports Federation named PC peripheral maker Razer the gaming gear partner of the Gamers8 esports event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in August, and PepsiCo will be the official supplier of beverages, reports SBJ's  Kevin Hitt.

• SBJ this week rolled out profiles for this year's Forty Under 40 honorees. Riot Games COO/Esports Whalen Rozelle is a handful of Hall of Famers this year, and the first from the esports industry.