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The English Premier League’s West Ham United signed a player this week that does not lace up cleats or run out on a pitch. He uses a controller instead of his feet, and his pitch is on a screen.
Sean “Dragonn” Allen is a professional FIFA player. That’s FIFA, as in the video game in which he now officially represents West Ham in professional tournaments. Allen even has his own team number, No. 50.
The Hammers likely offered Allen a deal because of his prowess as a player, but also in order to take advantage of the potential growth of the already massive eSports industry.
Allen came in second place this year at the FIFA Interactive World Cup, an eSports tournament. By signing him, West Ham gets a piece of the eSports industry, which is set to earn an estimated $1.9 billion by 2018, according to SuperData market research.
West Ham is the first team in the EPL to sign an eSports player, but the league isn’t the only one with its eyes on eSports. Euroleague Basketball teams have already signed full eSports teams, while the league as a whole reportedly has designs on developing an entire eSports league parallel to the real-life Euroleague.
Clearly, signing Allen puts West Ham at the cutting edge of the eSports industry, but it also puts the club at the cutting edge of the sports industry more broadly. Because of the value of the digital platform, the team’s official representation in eSports tournaments has a myriad of benefits.
According to a report by Nielsen at the end of last year, the eSports fan base is largely made up of gamers themselves, making them particularly invested in the product. The report also says that eSports fans are young and live in “households with strong spending power,” making them an advertiser’s dream and a major money-making opportunity for the sports industry.
While eSports players manipulate the game from behind a screen, West Ham’s signing of Allen signals that the business of eSports has an increasingly tangible presence in the real-life sports industry.
