We’re well into 2021 now, and the world is slowly starting to tick back to normal after an extraordinary year for Esports and, well, everything else. Esports, in particular, has had a pretty rough time with the pandemic, with many fan-favorite events postponed or canceled outright due to global restrictions and safety concerns. But the sport is poised to make a roaring return, with many economists expecting it to come back even stronger financially. Events might have been delayed, but the scene is still thriving, and plenty has been going on behind the scenes. We can expect a host of tournaments to take place this year, alongside a host of new developments laying the foundation for the future of Esports.
Let’s take a look at some of the month so far’s biggest Esports headlines.
Hyper X Partners With Esposure
Gaming peripheral brand HyperX and esports education company Esposure have joined forces to increase accessibility to its education and raise awareness of the Esports field’s potential careers. “Esposure and HyperX have common goals to generate more opportunities for women in esports, promote education and eliminate barriers that keep individuals from learning about esports. It’s inspiring that we now have this partnership that brings tangible resources to our E2E ecosystem and best-in-class peripherals to our arena,” said Danny Martin, CEO of Esposure. E2E is the crux of Esposure as a company. It stands for “Education to entertain,” focusing on developing the next generation of competitive gamers and Esports professionals. Their program covers development in technology, management, marketing, production, and competition. The partnership with HyperX should certainly do them a lot of good, and with such a big backer behind them, their mission to bring Esports careers to the masses should see some serious success.
CS:GO Pinnacle Cup Kicks Off
The Pinnacle Cup is a one hundred thousand dollar event organized by the online betting and gaming company, collaborating with GRID, Relog, and Trustly. This is an online event – we’re not quite at the point where we can have massive offline tournaments yet, unfortunately – and the entire thing will be streamed on Twitch. It’s underway now, with the finals predicted for early April. The Pinnacle Cup features some of Europe’s top teams battling it out for a chance at the prize, proceeding through group stages and knockout rounds before coming up against the invited teams for a shot at the $80,000 grand prize.
The CS:GO Pinnacle Cup Day 2 saw four teams head to head without a warm-up, not having played many official events before. Ben Cove, Pinnacle’s CMO, said: “We’ve worked hard to establish our reputation in the industry, and we want to make sure we continue to show why we’re regarded as the pioneer of esports betting. It’s great to be a part of something that will really push the boundaries. Everyone at Pinnacle is looking forward to working alongside Trustly to make sure we bring some brilliant action and showcase the very best of CS:GO.”
Newzoo Report Predicts Esports Continued Growth In 2021
Some excellent news for Esports lovers – Analytics firm Newzoo published their 2021 marketing report for the industry, and it’s looking great. Esports viewership and streaming figures are set to continue their fantastic momentum throughout the year. This increased audience number will surely bring about an increase in spending, and Newzoo has predicted that the global Esports industry is on track to pull in over a billion dollars collectively in 2021. This is a fourteen percent increase over 2020’s gains, which was obviously a very challenging year for everyone.
Obviously, some industry sectors took a big hit last year – ticketing for events and merchandising fell sharply. While those are likely to recover in the long run, most of the industry’s profit this year should come from media sponsorships. Newzoo said, “the full report offers a realistic estimate of both markets’ current and future performance regarding audience numbers, key trends, and franchises—as well as esports’ revenue streams. We also profile key influencers and offer esports advice for key stakeholders looking to enter esports or bolster their strategies.” An abridged version of the report can be downloaded for free from their website right now – the full version might be a little bit outside of the average enthusiast’s budget, though.