Man City and Paris St. Germain have made moves into esports because they want to be relevant to advertisers, according to the director of partnerships at Twitch. Last year, Man City signed its first esports player, Kieran Brown, who will represent the club at esports tournaments, playing FIFA. PSG, meanwhile, has created an esports team. Other football teams have also invested in esports. Twitch Dir of Partnerships Chris Mead said that traditional football clubs were making a "marketing relevancy play" by moving into esports. Mead said that football clubs were saying, "All the competitive groups and clubs around me are entering the space, I should make an entrance." He added, "The second reason why clubs or groups are entering the space is they will see it as an opportunity to get ahead. They may invest into professional teams' players. And they are also trying to reach new audiences. Every marketer in the football league world is trying to reach an Asian audience. And esports is a fantastic route to reaching that audience."
DEBATE CONTINUES: Mead was speaking on a panel along with British Esports Association Founder & CEO Chester King and Audi Denmark Head of Marketing Christian Weiglin Thorn. Esports will generate more than £1B in global revenue and almost double its audience to nearly 600 million people by '20, forecasters predict. The panel discussed the long-running debate as to whether esports should continue to be classified as a game or a sport. Mead argued there was a number of reasons it should be classified as a sport, pointing to the hand-eye coordination required and the many fans who enjoyed it. He said, "Many stakeholders in the space who have been around when the industry was very much in its infancy, they have always believed esports is a sport. There are reasons why you could define esports as an actual sport." King said, "From our point of view, the positioning of esports is very important. We are not trying to rival or replace sport but what we are trying to be is an alternative to passive media." King said that being defined as a sport could be crucial in helping lure advertising money, as BEA wants to be associated with a sport and not a game, which doesn't carry the same positive, health-creating benefits. King pointed out it was better for children's welfare to be playing games which have mental health benefits rather than watching TV. The founder of the BEA also said there was an education process that needed to be carried out with the IOC about the value of esports. IOC President Thomas Bach said that he is uncertain about the possibility of esports becoming an Olympic sport. Esports will be a medal sport at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, which has spurred debate as to whether medals would someday be on the line at the Games. Bach has previously said, "We are not yet 100 percent clear whether esports is really sport, with regard to physical activity and what it needs to be considered sport."
John Reynolds is a writer in London.
