eSports Roundup w/c 2nd July

 We’ve rounded up some of the most exciting things happening in the eSports scene over the past week.

Moving one step closer to including video games in the Olympics

The push to incorporate eSports into the Olympics is continuing to gain momentum. The International Olympic Committee, joined by the Global Association of the International Sports Federations, are hosting a forum to explore the possibility of adding competitive video gaming to the global celebration. 

“The aim of the Forum is to explore synergies, build joint understanding, and set a platform for future engagement between the eSports and gaming industries and the Olympic Movement,” said the IOC in a statement.

In other words, Olympic officials want to know more about the concept of eSports, the impact they have, and how they operate. The gathering comes after last October’s Olympic Summit, where the IOC was officially asked to explore eSports as a potential addition to the event. 

While eSports won’t play a part in Tokyo’s 2020 Summer Games, they could very well be included in the 2024 Olympics.

Social eSports platform Taunt raises $3M in funding

eSports competition platform Taunt has just closed a $3M seed round. The round was led by Foundry Group and includes investments from PSL Ventures – the venture capital arm of Pioneer Square Labs, the startup studio where Taunt was founded – Vulcan Capital, and CRCM Ventures.

Last year, the company managed to raise $1.75M in a round that was also led by Foundry Group and included Vulcan Capital. 

“Traditional sports fans have so many options for rich, engaging social interactions,” says a spokesperson for Taunt. “We’re bringing that depth to e-Sports.”

Taunt is a social engagement platform designed for eSports fans. While watching gaming matches, viewers are able to use the Taunt app to compete against other users by predicting the outcome of games, which team will secure important objectives first, and various other statistics. The Taunt mobile app is currently in early access but will be made available later this year.

eSports becoming the next biggest frontier in influencer marketing

Competitive gaming is quickly on its way to disrupting entertainment as we know it. These days eSports are everywhere, and as a marketer it would be silly not to embrace them.

Last year, the eSports industry managed to rake in almost 500 million dollars. As it continues to grow more than 40% year over year, the industry is destined to become a $1.7 billion market by the time we reach 2021.

With an audience of over 300 million people across the globe, viewership of game streaming sites like Amazon’s Twitch have surpassed popular news sources such as CNN.

According to one study in 2017, more viewers spent their time watching “Gaming video content” than they did HBO, Netflix, ESPN and Hulu combined.