The Evolving Esports Industry: A Panel Discussion

I had a great time last week speaking at Digital LA’s Esports Panel, focusing on the gaming industry, startups in the space, and how esports will continue to advance and innovate in the coming years. 

Here are a few of my takeaways that I thought were great insights from my fellow panelists:

• Mobile Gaming - How big will it be?: There is a huge opportunity in mobile gaming, according to esports veteran Jeff Chau. He mentioned how big the mobile gaming industry currently is in Asia, with nearly 200 million users in China. I’m only aware of a few tournaments that involve mobile games in North America, and I would anticipate this will be a giant area of growth in the next few years as esports grows and more companies focus on growing mobile audiences by developing and promoting mobile games.
• "Become the Infrastructure": Companies and individuals can make themselves an important part of the industry by focusing on “becoming part of the infrastructure”, according to Arabian Prince. There will be excellent opportunities in the future if you or your company can become an integral part of the esports team-building infrastructure. I have personally tried to do this with my consulting work by helping professional esports teams build out their organizational structure and professional processes, and I can tell this will be a huge need for professional esports organizations as the industry continues to mature.
• Being $$$ Smart to Stay Sustainable: The keys to success for esports organizations will be revenue generation and cost efficiency. Not every organization can spend millions on acquiring franchised league teams. Matt Dillon of Ghost Gaming pointed out that for nearly all teams and organizations will need to rely on revenue-generating games and cost efficiency, which will both be the keys toward operating sustainable esports organizations now and in the coming years. 
• Access to Pro-Players: Sam Wang and his company, ProGuides, connects professional gamers with amateur gamers through their 1:1 coaching platform. One of the things that is really cool about esports is the fan connection to the pro teams and players, and ProGuides is providing an additional avenue to connect, and allowing professional gamers the ability to create additional streams of income.
• Esports Intersects with Traditional Sports: Being involved in gaming and esports is a great way to learn to learn discipline and work ethic to become great at a specific game.  Sonya Haskins, a VR professional gamer, points out that VR sports will create additional ways for gamers to be active and stay fit with the rise of VR games that allow users to move around and experience the game. 

It was a real privilege to participate on this panel with all of these individuals making a difference in this industry. They all have years of experience getting to this point in their careers and I really enjoyed hearing the different perspectives of all the members of the panel. 

This discussion highlighted the potential of the gaming industry as it continues to develop exciting new businesses and revenue streams that will continue to drive esports and gaming into the future.

Thank you to Kevin Winston and the Digital LA team for putting on such a quality event and discussion!