Perhaps the fastest growing sector in sporting throughout the past five years has been found within esports as it seems to have appeared from nowhere – looking at what it is today, it can be difficult to remember that it has only really been around in its current form for the past decade or so. Although esports did first emerge in the early 2000’s, there were no big broadcasting opportunities, there weren’t big crowds attracted – it was a sport with eyes off, until suddenly it wasn’t.

A big part of this change was largely due to the evolving technology – even before the evolving demographic that have recently become involved in esports, there needed to be the catalyst to allow these viewers to even watch and get involved, and this is the change in tech that was really needed.

Live streaming platforms – The largest streaming platform today for gaming can be found in Twitch, but there were predecessors that came before and really started the movement of live streaming. Where other larger sports rely on broadcasting to show the world the big events and games, the same opportunity couldn’t really be afforded to esports as it was a little too small and niche, but also that broadcasting is expensive and the smaller esports scene just couldn’t afford the additional cost. That’s where streaming comes in, capturing a huge audience for free whilst also allowing for other features that aren’t found in broadcasting through a live chat and engagement, starting the growth of the sport.

A social spread – Social media is a big part of modern business as a whole as it has been no exception for esports – using polls on platforms such as Twitter alongside the social pages of many of the teams that participate has allowed these previously obscure names and players to become household stars with their own huge followings, tied in with a strong presence of their own through live streaming and social media has been an anchor point for growth. We now see esports stars with more followers and more subscribers than those of traditional sporting events, showing how far the sport has moved

It’s important to consider other factors that may not be directly tech related too – a changing audience has led to a shift in other facets of sporting that are more traditional such as betting, as esports has also developed a huge betting scene to rival that of its competition, which has been shown recently during the pandemic. Despite heavy changes to initiatives such as Gamstop which aim to reduce participation options for problem gamblers, and changes such as the recent credit card ban on online betting, esports has continued to perform extremely well in this environment as a number of non gamstop sites such as those at Max Casinos continue to provide players with somewhere to play – introductions like these have attracted an older audience that may not have typically been involved in gaming as a whole but are now just as invested into it. Again, this is just the beginning for esports as it is still extremely young – we’re seeing modern tech advance at a rapid pace, and that can only mean good things for sports such as this.