There is an ongoing massive shift in the sports industry and it is not of a favourable kind. Recently, there is a huge decline in live viewership in sports and one of the reasons is because many established sports companies are slow in incorporating new technology in their operation.
One of the few examples of this is the fact that FIFA took many years to utilise the goal-line technology in the games, and teams are still not permitted to post match highlights on social media in the NFL.
Although, many sports enthusiasts blame esports as the main reason for the sudden decline of traditional sports. Could this be true? In this article, we will explain further how these two forms of sports affect each other.
Transforming the engagement game
Ever since esports was established almost a decade ago, it has grown into an industry that can defy the status quo of the engagement game in Asia bookie. Twitch, the live streaming platform is now creating a lot of communities that accommodate individuals that have the same interests.
It has become the main global stage of amateur and professional esports gamers that attracted millions of fans from all over the world. Titles such as Dota 2 and League of Legends could yield at least 60 to 70 million views per hour in a month.
There are some tournaments where it uses a combination of real-life and virtual reality visuals to bring life to the characters being portrayed and can provide an immersive gaming experience to the audiences. This innovation in esports has become a constant threat to the traditional sports tournaments.
New methods of making a profit
The traditional sports industry is mostly financed by the revenue that was collected from the ticket sales in a sports tournament, but most of these business models are based in the past and now most of them are inefficient.
Contrastingly, esports are innovating when it comes to the methods where gamers can be compensated or benefit in their live streaming activities. Recently, more games with in-game currency and digital assets have been released for gamers who also like to make a profit while playing. These digital currencies can be converted into real-life money or can be traded to acquire new skins or materials.
There are also sports betting casinos that provide betting services for esports tournaments and bettors can have a chance to make a profit while watching international esports competitions.
An industry that is facing many challenges
Esports has been thriving nowadays when it comes to real-time broadcasting in which sports companies had a hard time to do.
In the present, huge sports companies such as UEFA and FIFA are sponsored by cable television firms to broadcast their games. This old model can deeply hurt the industry because there is a decline in the amount of households subscribing to cable services and switching to other forms of entertainment such as Netflix and Twitch.
Although this rapid decline of viewership does not indicate an imminent death of the regular sports industry but serves as a wakeup call for these companies to accept these changes.
Fortunately, some of these companies are starting to remodel their business strategies and embrace the power of technological advancements. One of these companies is the NBA which uses the power of social media posting to increase engagement of fans and attract more viewers to watch the matches on cable television.
Conclusion
While esports has a lot of potential, we believe that it does not necessarily steal the spotlight from the regular sports industry. In fact, it shows what the sports industry has to do to maintain its viewers and supporters.
The global pandemic has nourished the internet industry which includes esports because of the limits imposed to people to stay inside, however it does not mean that the world of regular sports is done.
