By Adam Wakefield

For those looking to know more, they should have been at the 15th edition of the rAge Gaming Expo at the Ticketpro Dome in Johannesburg. 

Kicking off on Friday, 7 October, the eSports Branding Summit (hosted in collaboration with rAge and Global Assembly Marketing eSports) revealed that by 2018, the South African gaming market will be worth R3.6 billion. It was worth R2.6 billion in 2014 and R1.6 billion in 2010. Social gaming is growing at 8.9% a year, while PC and console gaming is growing at 3.9%, both compound increases.

The summit, the first in Africa, saw Ben “Benson” Bowe, commentator at Major League Gaming as the first speaker. Bowe, an Englishman who now lives in New York, said that eSports revenue, as an industry, will pass $1.9 billion dollars by the end of 2017.

Symptomatic of that revenue are the first prizes offered at the world championships of popular online games.  

“Call of Duty just had their world championship this year. They played for $2 million. League of Legends, $2 million. Valve hosts four major events for Counter Strike. Over one million dollars each,” said Bowe. 

“The grand-daddy of them all, Dota 2’s The International, the prize pool is over $20 million.”

To put it in perspective, players who win America’s Superbowl receive $97 000 each. The five-person team that wins The International receive millions of dollars in comparison. 

“They [eSports events] also have the viewership. To compare, the 2014 League of Legends world championship had more viewers than the NBA finals, the British Open and the Stanley Cup finals,” Bowe pointed out.

“The 2015 League of Legends final had 40 million people watching it. Their whole viewership was 334 million people. That is unique. The royal wedding, 300 million people watched that around the world.”

These numbers underline sports’ accessibility, according to Bowe, with fans able to support the team and game of their choice, while brands support the different teams and games. The industry is so vibrant that major sporting brands are now investing in their own eSports teams.

“Where you are an aspiring gamer, businessman, or owner looking to invest in eSports, it is one of the most uniting industries in the entire world. It transcends age, race, culture, location,” Bowe said. 

After Bowe, South African eSports aficionado, Steve Whitford, unpacked what gaming looks like across the continent, with South Africa being the biggest market. Nigeria and Kenya’s gaming industries are also expected to be worth over $110 million by 2019.

According to Whitford, gaming makes more money annually in South Africa than movies and DVDs combined, and that gap is only going to increase. The rAge Expo itself has grown every year since its inception 15 years ago, and over 30 000 people were expected to walk through the turnstiles for this year’s event. 

Twitch, a streaming service used to watch games online, has over 150 000 registered users in South Africa, double last year’s figures. 

The top South African eSports teams are now competing for approximately R2 million in total prize money this season, with players not too far away from being able to live off the money they earn on the local circuit. 

“Significantly, teams are starting to go overseas, playing in Dubai, Shanghi, and Paris,” he said.

Following Whitford was eSports host and brand specialist, Gareth Woods, who noted how it is inevitable that gaming will continue to grow in South Africa. The question is whether that growth is sustained locally, or if South Africa will be “colonised” by overseas actors.

“There are 1.7 billion gamers on the planet. 71% are over the age of 18. Gaming is huge. Gaming is massive and growing all the time and it is a bit difficult to step into gaming as a brand. Where do you start?” Woods asked.

“I think that is where eSports provides the kind of beach head to get involved as brands.”

eSports fans, as potential customers, are “super passionate”, very engaged in the teams and games they follow, and create immense amounts of content about those games and teams. The cost per acquisition in eSports is far cheaper compared to regular sports, and eSports provides unique engagement opportunities.

Woods then referred to the eSports love triangle: Fans, players, and brands.

“Brands care about fans. Fans are the reach. They [the fans] don’t really care what brand is involved. They are there for the player, they’re there for the content,” Woods said.

The players themselves cannot do without sponsors and brands, as they are the ones who pay them. In eSports, everyone is chasing someone else.

“We’ve done a phenomenal job of looking after the players, also in the sense that brands have come on board and are throwing down really big money,” Wood said.

However, it is the fan who is being left out and that is where Woods sees “massive opportunity for brands to get involved. We are missing that piece because when that piece works, this ecosystem starts exploding”.

For more information, visit www.rageexpo.co.za. Alternatively,  Alternatively, connect on Facebook, Twitter or on Instagram.