Should Richmond get involved in eSports?

[one-eyed]

Yesterday, Essendon became just the second AFL club to announce the purchase of an eSports franchise, when they acquired Australian top tier outfit Abyss.

Bombers chief marketing boss, Rodksi said that eSports it is a new way to be able to tap into a younger fan base.

“The AFL is about to invest pretty seriously in eSports in Australia and Etihad Stadium is going to become the hub of eSports in Australia.”

“I know there is a number of clubs that have been looking at it since Adelaide was the first mover in the market and I’ve got no doubt that in 3-5 years that there will be more AFL team involved.”

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2017/12/07/afl-will-see-esports-boom-very-soon-rodski/

[cub]

What is it exactly?

[MintOnLamb]

If it loses money, no.
Ess have dipped in

[Dougeytherichmondfan]

If it loses money, no.
Ess have dipped in

It certainly would, initially. Players would expect guaranteed salaries etc, plus it would take a fair bit of $$ to purchase a franchise.

But in the long run could be a bigger earner than any premiership delivered, especially if a team won a major international tournament. I'm talking tens of millions for the big ones.

[MintOnLamb]

How much would 5 years if no return cost?

[Dougeytherichmondfan]

How much would 5 years if no return cost?

Well it would really depend on the quality of player involved. Best players in the world would probably demand something like 200k annual retainer plus 90% of all tournament winnings and sponsorships of any streaming income. But thats for the best of the best. It all comes down to how much exposure and guananteed income we could achieve. Most pro gamers rely on income from streaming their casual playing as mucb as they do from tournament performances.

But we'd be looking at small fry players, so maybe 50k retainers and maybe a third of earnings for streaming, 5-10% for tournament winnings. Depends on deals we could broker with streaming websites etc. We'd immediately bump viewership of any player by 10 - 15k Id have thought, which is decent enough coin.

[dwaino]

There is some huge coin in this now as well as TV coverage on channels like ESPN and the best teams are usually even housed by their major sponsor. When you add in the energy drink and peripheral sponsorships on top of winnings, a lot of these guys are pulling in more than professional sportsmen here and that’s not even counting their Twitch or Patreon earnings. To be honest a pro player wouldn’t need a sports club like ours. There also aren’t even enough quality players in Australia if everyone wanted to get involved. If you go through the Dota, LoL and Starcraft rankings there is hardly an Aussie in sight. We’ve done well at regional CSGO and FIFA tournaments over the years but these guys aren’t professional and only play for tournament money.

Honestly there would be bugger revenue for the club, it would be just about spreading the name of the club but that’s going to do sweet stuff all outside of Australia. It’s a saturated market too with developers trying to get their games involved. You would have to have lots of players over several games and there is no guarantee that a game you’ve invested in a team for will still be relevant in 3 or 4 years time. 2K have been trying to get their NBA 2K competition bigger, Blizzard have added Overwatch which was almost entirely to be an esports shooter, PUGB looks like it’s going to try and take off in the esports area.