The Competitive Gaming Scene Erupts Into a Global Phenomenon
NEW YORK, July 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The eSports industry has grown rapidly along with the emergence of competitive games. Competitive gaming has been around for decades, but, in its early days, it was typically players just trying to beat each other's top scores at the arcade. Since then, the industry has evolved into one of the top-grossing and most viewed in the media market. Nowadays, most games that have a ranked system have developed a competitive scene. These ranking modes are typically set up as a tier or bracket system where players earn points if they play well or win games, pushing them into higher brackets. The point system is based off an ELO system, which was developed for the International Chess Federation by mathematician Arpad Elo in 1978. Games that have an ELO system tend to dominate the gaming industry and have user bases in the millions. For instance, League of Legends is one of the biggest games with an eSport scene and, in 2017, its owner, Riot Games, disclosed that it had reached a player count of 100 million. Generally, League of Legends is so widely popular game across the world because it is a free-to-play game with a massive competitive background. According to a data analytic tracking site for League of Legends that compiled data from 8.46 million players, it is estimated that an average player has spent approximately 832 hours on the game. With the number of players and time spent on the game, it's no surprise that League of Legends is one of the top-grossing video games in the world. Moreover, with the earnings that Riot Games makes off of microtransactions within the game, the Company is able to host million-dollar prize tournaments for top players around the globe. For example, last year, League of Legends held its World Championship tournament that flaunted a grand prize of USD 6.45 Million, making it the 6th largest tournament ever, based on prize pool payout. Overall, the massive user bases for games, as well as their in-game purchases, allow organizations to hold massive tournaments that then draw in millions of viewers. According to data compiled by Ovum, the global eSports market was valued at USD 733 Million in 2017. By 2022, the agency expects the market to reach USD 1.9 Billion while growing at a CAGR of 20.7%. UMG Media Ltd. (TSX-V: ESPT), NVIDIA Corporation's (NASDAQ: NVDA), Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), DouYu International Holdings Limited (NASDAQ: DOYU), Enthusiast Gaming Holdings Inc. (OTC: EGHIF) (TSX-V: EGLX)
Like League of Legends, Valve's Dota 2 The International tournament is constructed in a similar vein. Valve releases in-game items to purchase and a percentage of the profits are directed back towards the tournament prize pool. According to data by market research firm Superdata, it was highlighted that free-to-play games with microtransactions generate three-times more than the revenue pay-to-play games earn. In 2017, it was estimated that free-to-play gamers spent USD 22 Billion on in-game purchases. These microtransactions appeal to many gamers because they can be an easy way to get ahead of the competition, just spend some money, while some view it as simply a cosmetic item for their in-game appearance. Essentially, it means that the players themselves are contributing to a significant portion of the tournament through their personal purchases. Based on Superdata's forecast, microtransactions in free-to-play games are expected to increase to almost USD 25 Billion by 2022, meaning that companies like Riot Games and Valve can hold even larger tournaments. In particular, Valve's crowdfunding received immense support and purchases, which led to the Company holding the largest eSport tournament ever, Dota 2's The International 2019. The tournament is expected to begin in late August 2019 in Shanghai and has a colossal prize pool of over USD 30 Million. "Gaming, specifically competitive gaming (also called eSports) has started to grow at an astounding rate. Traditional sports franchises and even Netflix are worried about this new competitor, as live streaming and in-person events continue to encroach on their territory," said Brett Schafer, Co-Founder of Market Brothers Media. "Whatever you think of eSports personally, you cannot deny how big it has gotten, and will become. We are still in the early stages of this new industry, one that should continue to grow over the next two decades. It could pay off handsomely for any investor that decides to get in early."
UMG Media Ltd. (TSX-V: ESPT) announced earlier last week that, "The summer of 2019 started off hot for UMG and Keemstar, as they have brought back the largest influencer series ever, Friday Fortnite. Millions of viewers each week tune in to watch the UMG casters cover the world's most popular streamers and pro players as they face off in teams of two to claim the top prize. Names like Ninja, DrDisRespect, TimTheTatMan, and more have shown support of the series by participating. The series has attracted sponsors like GFuel, HyperX, Pink City, and more bringing in over US$150,000 in sponsorship revenue over the course of six weeks. The series has had more than 30,000,000 live views when combining all the streams that are highlighted. UMG's own Twitch channel, www.twitch.tv/umgevents, has been averaging almost 20,000 concurrent viewers.
With the success of Friday Fortnite, Keemstar and UMG have recently expanded to another one of the hottest games in the world, Minecraft. Like Friday Fortnite, influencers compete against one another each week for prizing, but this time there's a twist: Minecraft Monday features multiple game modes, requiring influencers to perform well in many different situations. Chaos ensues, and it makes for a great viewing experience. The Monday series has had more than 10,000,000 live views when combining all the streams that are highlighted. UMG's own Twitch channel, www.twitch.tv/umgevents, has been averaging approximately 3,000 concurrent viewers. Unlike UMG's other series, Minecraft Monday has not only a private server for these matches, but a public server where thousands can join in and play the same game modes and maps that they see in the series. UMG also has the advantage of being able to add sponsor branding inside the game itself, consequently, exposure for our sponsors not only goes to our stream viewers, but to the participant's streams as well.
Keemstar and UMG are continuing to pave new roads in the gaming and entertainment industries, and the future is looking bright with further expansion of the UMG Network. The UMG website is booming with 1,300,000 users, and over 14,0000,000 sessions in the last three months. Week after week, hundreds of thousands of viewers return to watch their favorite players, interact on the UMG site, participate in giveaways, and chat with their friends as they watch the action. UMG will continue to push forward and innovate in the space, and Keemstar' s popularity and following will only continue to grow. Together, we will continue to bring the very best content to our viewers and fans."
About UMG: UMG is a premier esports company in North America. UMG has operations involved in live tournaments, online esports contests, casino esports operations, creation and distribution of original content and esports tournament operations through its proprietary tournament management app. Readers can learn more about UMG and its esports offerings at www.umggaming.com ."
For our latest "Behind the Buzz" Corporate Snapshot Show featuring UMG Media Ltd., please head over to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPVbVPOc5vM
NVIDIA Corporation's (NASDAQ: NVDA) invention of the GPU in 1999 sparked the growth of the PC gaming market, redefined modern computer graphics and revolutionized parallel computing. NVIDIA recently supercharged its lineup of gaming GPUs by introducing GeForce® RTX 2060 SUPER(TM), GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER and GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER -- delivering best-in-class gaming performance and real-time ray tracing for today's and next-generation games. The result of nearly a year of architectural and process optimizations, the new GeForce RTX SUPER GPUs deliver the fastest gaming performance and the best power efficiency of any gaming GPU in their class. They also offer gamers an uncompromised combination of leading performance and cutting-edge features. "The ecosystem driving real-time ray tracing is immense -- tens of millions of GPUs, industry standard APIs, leading game engines and an all-star roster of game franchises," said Jeff Fisher, Senior Vice President of the PC business at NVIDIA. "This killer lineup of SUPER GPUs delivers even more performance for demanding PC gamers and ensures that they're prepared for the coming wave of real-time ray tracing blockbusters."
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), headquartered in New York City, is a leading developer, publisher and marketer of interactive entertainment for consumers around the globe. 2K recently announced the cover athletes for NBA® 2K20, the next iteration of the top-rated and top-selling NBA video game simulation series of the past 18 years. Six-time NBA All-Star, three-time All-NBA First Team, three-time NBA All-Defensive Team and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Anthony Davis returns as cover star for the Standard and Deluxe Editions. Three-time NBA Champion, 13-time NBA All-Star, 2008 Olympic gold medalist and 2006 NBA Finals MVP Dwyane Wade will grace the cover of the Legend Edition. These iconic players will grace the covers of NBA 2K20, marking the latest edition of the game that has defined basketball culture for over two decades. All editions of NBA 2K20will be available worldwide on September 6, 2019. "The NBA 2K franchise has the distinct honor of selecting the league's best talent to grace the cover of the game," said Alfie Brody, Vice President of Marketing for NBA 2K. "Anthony and Dwyane represent everything that makes basketball such a global phenomenon - whether it's the thunderous dunks, transcendent talent or era-defining legacies - and serve as a true inspiration for the next generation of NBA superstars coming up in the league."
DouYu International Holdings Limited (NASDAQ: DOYU), headquartered in Wuhan, China, is a leading game-centric live streaming platform in China and a pioneer in the eSports value chain. DouYu International Holdings Limited recently announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 67,387,110 American Depositary Shares at USD 11.5 per ADS. Every ten ADSs represent one ordinary share. The ADSs began trading on July 17th, 2019 on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol "DOYU." Of the 67,387,110 ADSs being offered, 44,924,730 ADSs are offered by the Company, and 22,462,380 ADSs are offered by the selling shareholders, assuming the underwriters do not exercise their over-allotment option. The Company and the selling shareholders have granted the underwriters an option, exercisable within 30 days from the date of the final prospectus, to purchase up to 10,108,060 additional ADSs. The total gross proceeds of the offering are expected to be approximately USD 775.0 million if the underwriters do not exercise their over-allotment option, and approximately USD 891.2 million if the underwriters choose to exercise their over-allotment option in full. The Company will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of the ADSs by the selling shareholders.
Enthusiast Gaming Holdings Inc. (OTCQB: EGHIF) (TSX-V: EGLX), founded in 2014, is the fastest-growing online community of video gamers. Enthusiast Gaming Holdings Inc. recently announced that it has entered into a Senior Convertible Debenture Purchase Agreement to invest in Addicting Games Inc., one of the largest online game networks in the United States. The Addicting Games network reaches over 10 million gamers monthly. They are leaders in developing and distributing browser games, and their platform focuses on the increasingly popular "browser multiplayer" .io website games. .io games are a popular new genre of real-time multiplayer games which are played in a browser, featuring addictive online multiplayer battles, with simple but hard to master gameplay. These games are becoming increasingly popular due to easy accessibility, mass multiplayer battles, and allowing players to play games within seconds from any computer with an internet connection. Menashe Kestenbaum, Chief Executive Officer of Enthusiast, commented, "With the rise in mobile gaming and the advent of HTML5 technology, every browser can now be a game console and therefore attract significantly more visitors. We see the growth potential in console agnostic games and are excited to be partnering with Addicting Games to provide them with the best monetization strategy to execute on their continued growth and development of new browser based games."
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