The rapidly converging worlds of traditional sports and eSports moved a little closer last week; as top Spanish basketball organization, Saski Baskonia, and Atlantis Esports joined forces to form Baskonia-Atlantis. As a pre-eminent powerhouse in the Liga ACB, El Baskonia is a Spanish professional basketball club who is no stranger to success. Baskonia advanced to the Euroleague Final Four in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. The club boasts a proud history, featuring some of the most competitive teams in the world and is perennial candidate for Euroleague. In other words, they got game. This announcement, however, is less about basketball and more about the biggest growth opportunity for sports since TV: eSports.

The sports media conundrum

The advent of television has impacted the traditional sports industry as much or more than any other technical innovation. Modern TV took professional sports from regional-based networks of clubs/leagues to the global behemoth it is today. As a matter of fact, the lucrative business of sport would not exist without TV.

The sale of broadcasting and media rights is now the biggest source of revenue for most sports organizations, generating the funds needed to finance major sporting events, refurbish sports stadia, and contribute to the development of sport at grassroots level. (World Intellectual Property Organization)

The above is largely unknown by most, who consider revenue from tickets, jerseys (apparel), licensing, etc. as responsible for the skyrocketing values of sport properties. However, as media consumption patterns move away from the TV screen, and toward internet connected devices, modern sport organizations must evolve a business model tied, at the neck, to a rapidly aging platform.

To complicate matters, millennials are cutting off live televised content at a disproportionate rate. This leaves the traditional sports industry in a compromising position. TV remains their golden goose, but the ever valuable 18 – 35yr old demographic is drifting further and further away from it. The question sports media must answer is, what are those “eyeballs” fixed upon?

eSports as a platform

Enter eSports, with its massive global appeal among younger audiences, exponential growth rates and lack of brand saturation. Currently, most narrative has focused on how eSports stacks up against the traditional sports world. Or in terms of replicating what works in traditional sports, within the virtual domain of eSports. It has become the classic “Old versus New” dialogue which, unfortunately, obfuscates the biggest growth opportunity found in the merging of these two worlds. The move by Baskonia hints at how eSports can be leveraged as a lucrative platform within the traditional sports world. Here’s why forward thinking sports organizations must learn to embrace eSports counterparts, instead of write them off or consider them competitors:

• Young sports fans are gamers: The gaming generation is here. Embrace it or die. Whether traditional sport realizes it, the next wave of fans (consumers) is immersed in the culture of gaming. Not all are eSports fanatics but the overlap, between playing games yourself and viewing others play, is huge.
• Learn by contributing: Traditional sport brands who take the plunge into eSports, will gain invaluable access to insights on the very millennials they claim to clamor for. Insight that beats all the complex consumer polls, surveys by “experts”, and reports from the best consultancies money can buy. eSports lays bare to what works, and doesn’t, in today’s new media frontier. Today that cost is simply getting involved, as the eSports industry grows, the cost will grow with it.
• Ready-made global reach: The Baskonia-Atlantis partnership demonstrates how a successful team with a strong national brand can catapult its exposure across an entire global community. Thanks to the flatter, less developed eSports domain, Baskonia can accelerate the process of reaching across the entire globe. Quick quiz: Name another platform that can offer the same without significant barriers of entry.

Early movers, win

There is an old adage that says, being first is like showing up to a 10pm party at 3pm. In most things, it rarely pays off to be first. It’s much easier (and less risky) to justify an investment early on, than to be the very first. Accordingly, now is the time to capitalize on the ascendant eSports opportunity. The time isn’t when a shift has become a trend, because by then you’re stuck in the middle of the bell curve. The traditional sports industry would do well to invest in the eSports world as an opportunity to grow their interests. Much like buying stock in a company, once everyone is calling it hot, you’re too late.

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Alex Fletcher is founder & president at eSports Group, where he helps customers meet their eSports advisory & consulting needs. When Alex isn’t glued to a screen, he spends time with his wife, their two dogs, and pretends to learn Polish. Feel free to stalk him on Twitter – @FletchUnleashed