In this day and age, parents might have a few more choices for sports to get their kids involved in. If your kid isn’t interested in their conventional options like football or baseball, perhaps they’ll get into universities like Columbia, Univeristy of California at Irvine, or even Tiffin University of Ohio with their talents in eSports.
Culture is always on the move. From our dreaded days of Myspace or even Xanga and MSN if you’re going back even further, to our Facebook, Instagram Snapchat, Vine and more, we’re a culture that continually hunts for the next technological fad to incorporate into society.
This tendency lead to the rise of eSports.
From humble beginnings, the rise of gaming in our everyday lives has skyrocketed. Really though, we’ve always had an urge to play.
Look at the popularity of card games like Blackjack. The root is all the same—we want something we can involve ourselves in and enjoy.
All sports came about the same way that eSports is today. It probably sounded pretty silly that groups of people were getting together and chasing after a ball back before it became an established part of our culture.
With the recent purchase of popular streaming site Twitch.tv, which allows users to interact with fans while playing games live by market tycoon Amazon for a whopping $970 million, the public is waking up to just how large a business eSports is becoming.
The eSports world is projected to bring in over $500 million this year alone.
Compare that to other popular businesses like the NFL. While the sports giant brought in some $7.24 billion last year, each specific team contributed around $226 million. When we compare it, eSports right now is about two NFL teams and growing.
To make the comparison more interesting, the NFL gets most of that money from ads and television content—a market that is just now being exposed to eSports.
Popular soda drink company Coca Cola has invested in eSports sponsorships, along with college-student-necessity Monster Energy Drinks. They’re not alone by any means in their investments.
From Ivy Leagues to colleges in Ohio, scholarships have opened to students who possess the skills required for the eSport world.
Are you the next eSportstar? Can you see yourself signing with sponsorships? You should put in for it.
I’m even looking at these opportunities myself despite having been out of the scene as more popular games have come to the forefront of the sport. If it can get you or your kid into college, it’s a talent worth exploring.
Like anything else in life if you push yourself, have some talent and have a passion, you’re mostly the person who decides just how far you can go.
Maybe all that CandyCrush could finally pay off some college debt.
Barton Kleen
Managing Editor