The 2015 Dota 2 International created an $18 million prize pool, mainly through in-game add-on purchases, the Halo 5 World Championships plan to do the same. How could poker get in on the act?

This summer, eSports team Evil Geniuses won Valve’s premier eSports tournament: Dota 2 The International. Two things caught my eye about this victory: the size of the prize pool and its construction.

The total prize pool exceeded $18 million. That’s double the prize pool of the Season 12 European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Event in Barcelona. John Juanda earned $1.1m for that win and the 1,694 players that entered created that prize pool in its entirety. Evil Geniuses won $6.6m at the Dota 2 champs.

Tournament organisers Valve only contributed $1.6m towards the prize pool. The rest of the money ($17m+) came from the players in the form of special in-game bonus packs that they bought throughout the year. The prize pool could have been even larger than $18m when you consider of those in-game packs only 25% of the money collected went towards the prize pool, with 75% filling Valve’s already bustling coffers.