DURBAN -The global gaming arena has exploded with eSport and local governing body Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) has selected BOO! Sports Marketing to to launch a commercial strategy.
The strategy will be promoting gaming and maximising sponsorship and branding opportunities within the industry. Gaming is a global industry that is worth R1,3 trillion that has almost 2 billion players. Two years ago the gaming industry was worth R29,7 million in South Africa and now gaming is worth R100 million.
Richard van der Schyff, Managing Director of BOO! Sports Marketing said that eSport is the new frontier. van der Schyff called eSport a dynamic and exciting multi-billion dollar industry that is developing a new consumer and spectator interaction.
BOO! has been given the task of taking MSSA into the professional era by putting in place things like a commercial strategy for the federation and a sponsorship programme created to attract and keep prospective sponsors.
According to the BBC, e-Sports is just a short name for electronic sports. Just like football players play football together, e-Sporters players computer games against each other. eSports has become quite popular over the past few years with companies across the world realising that they can make a lot of money from eSports. In 2016 gamers spent close to £3.3 billion on computer games in the United Kingdom.
Last year its was announced that e-Sport will have their own official organistaion called the World eSports Association. The association would be in charge of e-Sports much like what Fifa does for football.
It is also under consideration as a medal event for the Olympic Games.