I don't watch this stuff, but I've read that there's a widespread belief that the "e-sports" (barf) industry is in the midst of a wild and completely unsustainable bubble. I have to say I find the viewership numbers to be ridiculous. They're clearly as fake as any other "engagement" metrics on the Internet. I'm sorry but 200 million people are not watching a bunch of people [mod] play little beep boop games for 12 year olds.
Anyway, I only care about this to the extent that it's funny that this absolutely gormless dumbass Francesco is so deeply involved in the ridesharing scam AND the e-sports bubble. It's enough to make you think he might not be capable of steering the canucks franchise towards success.
You heavily underestimate viewership. Far more people have been exposed to video games and legitimate sports nowadays and at the end of the day whether it's real sports or esports it's all about emotional involvement. Pro-gamers are directly involved in gaming communities far more than traditional athletes and as a result players who know them are invested in them and want to see them win, and I would argue that connection for many is more significant than watching a sports team that just happens to be from your city.
How many people do you think tune into Canucks games? Hundreds of thousands watch major tournaments and even the regular leagues get a lot of viewership. Viewers means advertisers will pay. They might advertise Colgate during hockey games but companies like Logitech for example need a place to advertise as well and esports is the perfect place for that.
Advertisers pay, teams get paid, and the cost of operating an esports franchise is
significantly lower than operating a sports franchise. Roster payroll is lower and you don't need to have major real estate and a large arena. The profit margins are quite clearly significantly larger given the extremely low cost of operation and I don't believe you're taking that into account. Lots of these esports orgs have been around since long before the esports boom and were profitable even then.
What exactly makes watching someone kick a ball or play hockey any more legitimate than video games? Yeah it's more impressive in regards to athletics, but I don't watch hockey for the raw athletic ability, I watch it because I am emotionally invested. Do you genuinely believe it's significantly different to be emotionally invested in a physical game rather than a strategy game? Why?
The biggest issue with esports is that games come and go, so investing millions into a game that will eventually die is problematic. I'm actually shocked Overwatch is still a remotely major esport. Investing into a large organization that spans multiple different games though somewhat mitigates that and as I mentioned earlier the cost of operation is much much lower.
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