Although news of astounding esports enthusiast and viewership growth is covered on a daily basis, advertising spend is slower than its predecessors’ in traditional sports franchises.  However, experts speculate that brands that get involved in early adopter phase, as rules and regulations are still being founded in esports, will gain more loyalty than later ‘bandwagon’ advertisers.

It’s the classic chicken and egg conundrum.  When surveying 100 various influencers from game developers, publishers, brands, advertisers and legal firms, roughly 70% of them agreed with the sentiment that esports will play a critical role in their business strategies, whether large- or small-scale.  50% of the same group also stated that esports is ‘a platform with a lot of potential, but won’t be mainstream adopted (or sustainable) until the industry is stabilized with regulations and a governing body.’(1)

However, will waiting for the esports industry to fully professionalize cost consumer brands and agencies the first-to-market impact (and following loyalty) within the esports community?

“Esports already is a viable marketing channel for big brands to target an extremely valuable and difficult-to-reach demographic—relatively affluent, young males,” says Brum Blum, Founder of IME Law, and one of the first esports Attorneys. “The problem is many big brands lack a basic understanding of the industry and struggle to engage with the typical esports sponsorships (which heavily involve live-streaming and other less-common activations).”