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Leagues and Governing Bodies

Female Competitive Gamers Face Harassment, Gender Pay Gap

Very "few women enter the world of professional gaming, and those that do often face harassment and a huge gender pay gap," according to the BBC. Esports is "growing at an incredible pace." In '16, revenues from esports are "predicted by professional services firm Deloitte to rise by 25% to $500M." Its regular global audience will "likely top 150 million people." Unlike in traditional sport, "physical advantages in e-sports are non-existent" yet the most popular games are still "overwhelmingly" played by men. Recent research by the Pew Center shows men and women are "equally likely to say they play video games but men are twice as likely to consider themselves 'gamers.'" It is "when gaming becomes competitive that the number of women playing drops dramatically." Steph Harvey is "one of the most successful gamers in the world." She said that "the number of women in e-sports is as low as 5% and the main reason is the stereotype attached to gamers." Harvey said, "It's still a 'boy's club' so as a woman you're automatically judged for being different." Online abuse has been "prevalent in the gaming community for years." Harvey has even received online rape threats in the past. Harvey: "The way I get harassed is about what they would do to my body, about why I don't deserve to be there because I use my sexuality -- it's all extremely graphic." Julia Kiran is the leader of Team Secret, which in October became "the top female team in the world." She thinks this reflects a common attitude. Kiran: "It's always felt that female teams are not a real scene. Male players see us as a side game that doesn't count." One of the solutions has been the creation of female teams and female-only tournaments. But female tournaments are "not without controversy." Many players, including Kiran, believe they reinforce gender divides. Kiran: "It would be cool to see something that male and females are working together on." Prize money offered in female tournaments highlights a "big disparity in earnings" between male and female players. The Paris esport World convention had a cash prize of $75,000 in the mixed competition while the women-only competition had a cash prize of $15,000. The earning for the top male player in esports amounts to over $2.5M while the top female earnings are less than $200,000 (BBC, 11/21).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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