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Esports is on a roll. The global esports market passed the $2 billion mark last year and is expected to be worth nearly $11 billion by 2032. Tournament prize money is rising (multiplayer battle arena game DOTA 2 offers cumulative pots of $40m annually) and the audiences viewing on channels like Twitch is expected to top 640 million worldwide this year. To cap it all the IOC has agreed to deliver an official Olympics Esports Games although the event due to take place in Saudi Arabia later this year has now been postponed.
The event appears mired in organisational difficulties, including how the tournament is financed. Esports’ structure is not unlike Formula One in combining individual talent with teams of engineering (software) designers (games publishers) in competition on and off the track. That commercial rivalry seems to be one of many issues the IOC’s nascent Esports Committee needs to iron out.
“The IOC are on a journey that is quite a way removed from the normal Summer and Winter Games,” Dave Martin, SVP of the British Esports Association told IBC365 before news emerged of the delay. “They are right to take the time to understand how they're going to do this effectively. There are lots of ongoing conversations to understand how it is going to work.”
This included basic decisions such as how qualification will work and what role anti-doping agencies WADA and UKAD would play, down to questions around national selection. While British Esports, the national body for esports in the UK, would likely have a role, each of the nations (Esports Wales, Esports Scotland, Esports Northern Ireland) also has an esports agency.
“Until we have a clear mandate and definition from the IOC then we are unsure as to which body has what degree of control,” says Martin.
Virtual, Sim and ‘Traditional’
There was indecision too about the actual games that would be played at the Olympics. If first person shooter titles like Counter Strike were deemed too far removed from Olympic ideals, other games featuring shooting like Fortnite, have featured at previous Olympic Esports series events.
The games may in fact be split into three classifications: Virtual, Sim and ‘Traditional’.
Virtual sports mirror existing Olympic events and include Virtual Taekwondo (VTKD), a game endorsed by World Taekwondo in which competitors wear VR displays and motion tracking technology to engage in realistic sparring; and online cycling gam Zwift. It too requires physical movement of the player and endurance. Others include virtual events for sailing (Virtual Regatta) and tennis (Tennis Clash).
Sim games could be anything from a simulated racing game (like Gran Turismo) to sim soccer (like EA Sports FC) or basketball (NBA 2K). Traditional esports games include multiplayer strategy games League of Legends, DOTA 2 or arcade-style Rocket League.
In theory, professional athletes could go head-to-head with pro esports players. “A pro cyclist might win Zwifting because they're going have the athletic ability whereas a pro gamer is likely to win e-football (there are no pro footballers in the top eschalon’s of e-soccer),” suggests Martin. “When it comes to Sim racing, there are some F1 drivers like Max Verstappen or Lando Norris who are very, very good at sim racing and might fancy a go at it.”
The most popular esports titles, like League of Legends, are likely to be most attractive to the IOC in bringing in a whole new and younger audience.
“If you've got someone like Faker (aka Lee Sang-hyeok, the South Korean pro who has drawn comparisons with Michael Jordan as the GOAT) playing League of Legends in the Olympic final that is going to bring in millions of people who may never have watched the Olympics,” says Martin. “Faker is a God in his country in a way that K-pop bands are.”
For audiences unfamiliar with esports or the mechanics of particular game-play, the broadcast presentation is going to be essential. One template the IOC’s production might lean on the graphical guides produced using augmented reality and realtime data with which WarnerBrosDiscovery presents the Tour de France.
“I don't think the objective of the IOC is to get the average Olympic viewer to know more about League of Legends. It's to get the League of Legends viewer to watch some more of the Summer games,” says Martin.
Lessons from the Commonwealth Games
Similar organisational issues dogged esports’ reappearance as a medal event at the Commonwealth Games 2026 after a pilot run at Birmingham in 2022. The CW Games committee of Australian state Victoria opted not to reintroduce esports with reasons speculated to include “resistance to esports from more traditional, older members” and difficulties in arranging dope testing for esports players throughout the year. The late switch of CW26 to Glasgow meant there was even less time to coordinate the schedules of players in an already packed esports calendar.
Nonetheless, Martin claims Birmingham was a success on several fronts. “It helped bring esports into the mainstream consciousness, for example, by being featured on The One Show,” he says. “We were able to showcase the back stories of talent and it was wonderful that gamers from all different backgrounds were able to come together and share their experiences.”
“The Games also demonstrated a pride in representing your country,” he says. “Cynics wondered if athletes would care but some [athletes] were in tears, because they won a their medal or wore the flag representing their country. Some of those were seasoned Pros with successful careers.”
That said, international representation in esports is new. “If the career pinnacle for most footballers is to play at a FIFA World Cup, that's not yet the case in Esports. There are huge tournaments with big prize money and representation of your country is still a new idea.”
Alban Dechelotte, CEO of G2 Esports and consultant to the Olympic Committee, acknowledged that Birmingham 2022 and other international events including the 2022 Asian Games in China and Pan American Games 2023 paved the way for the IOC to announce the Olympic Esports Games.
UK cements esports hub
None of this will derail the UK’s own trajectory as an international esports hub. Last year, a record number of tier one esports events took place in the country including the League of Legends Worlds finals in London, ESL One in Birmingham and Rainbow Six Major in Manchester.
The number of professional esports teams active in the UK has grown to over 200 and include teams like Fnatic and Excel Esports which compete at the highest levels in international tournaments.
The UK government has recognised the potential of esports as a major economic driver, implementing supportive policies and regulations. In 2023, it invested £10 million in esports development programs. The ministry of defence has embraced esports to build a workforce “that can think, adapt, and operate across both virtual and physical domains.”
The British Esports Association is at the centre of much of this. A not-for-profit organisation designed to support and promote esports, with a focus on the grassroots level, it was established with authority from the UK government in January 2016.
In 2020 it developed and launched the world’s first BTEC qualification in esports. It is behind the British Esports Student Champs, a series of competitive video gaming competitions for students aged 12+ played by 250 schools and colleges across the UK, and next month [March] stages the inaugural British Esports Cup.
Billed as a “first of its kind independent community tournament” and organised with esports entertainment company BLAST, the British Esports Cup is open to amateurs and casual fans competing in Rocket League, a game that blends football with rocket-powered cars. The winners land the chance to compete in the RLCS 2025 Major Birmingham later this year.
The Association has opened a state-of-the-art esports training campus in Sunderland to which a 250-seat Arena with 17-metre video screen will be added in the coming months.
“Whether you're competing at a Student Champs Finals watched 125000 people online or a global event in front of millions of viewers or on the world stage at an Olympic Games being prepared for the lights, the heat and the cameras is important,” says Martin. “Even pro-esports players can be nervous when they compete in finals staged live in front of thousands of spectators, especially if they have played most of their games in their bedroom. So part of the reason for the new Arena is as a training facility for people to experience what it means to ply their craft on stage.”
Saudi Arabia’s esports push
As with many other creative and sporting sectors the Saudi’s have targeted investment in esports to drive new business to the country. Investment has been rapid from a base of zero just five years ago. It includes building a dedicated gaming and e-sports district at Qiddiya City, 45km from downtown Riyadh. The 360km2 district will house several dedicated esports venues, including one of the world's largest, and offer facilities to host up to 25 top-tier esports teams simultaneously. Last year it hosted the first Esports World Cup, an event set up by the Saudi Esports Federation, and won by Team Falcons, a Saudi team that is among the world elite.
The deal signed with the IOC will see the Kingdom host the Olympic Esports every other year for 12 years.
The state’s overall sports and gaming strategy is to create 40,000 new jobs, add $13bn to the economy and develop Saudi into the “global epicenter” of games development and esports events and activations.
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