What is eSports?
Before investing, it's a good idea to understand the basics. For eSports stocks, that means learning about the industry itself.
Esports, short for “electronic sports”, is the growing business of playing video games competitively in front of a viewing audience.
There is not a singular “eSport.” The word roughly translates to “sport,” and just like traditional sports, a variety of different games have attracted a dedicated professional community. The most popular games, according to Twitch, are League of Legends and Overwatch. The NBA, NFL and FIFA all hold tournaments for the digitised versions of their corresponding sports. That means there’s a difference between a professional soccer player and a professional FIFA 19 player. Spectators watch eSports in-person and on Amazon owned Twitch. Incredibly, the biggest tournaments have sold out Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center, and Staples Center.
Why invest in the eSports industry?
Video games have gone mainstream – moving from clunky PCs and expensive consoles, to the mobile devices we have in our pockets every day. Now, more people are playing video games than ever before. Whether it is Casual Single-Players games that can be played anywhere, at any time on a smartphone, or Battle Royale games such as Fortnite where squads compete to be the last ones standing, gamers have many choices. But it’s not just about playing video games. Watching other gamers play online is becoming increasingly popular and now rivals the viewership of traditional sports among younger gamers.
Last year, an estimated 100 million viewers tuned into the League of Legends World Championship series. That’s almost as many viewers as the 2018 Super Bowl, and it didn’t involve a television network: It was hosted online on Twitch, an Amazon-owned live-streaming service that is quickly becoming just as influential as any cable network.
As a consequence, brands increasingly have been looking at the business of eSports in the same way they view traditional mainstream sports like basketball or football: as a great opportunity to engage with young consumers at scale.
In 2020 we saw major brands including Nike, BT, and Kia Motors all unveil partnerships with eSports teams set to compete in the 2020 League of Legends World Championship tournament, sponsored by Louis Vuitton.
At a time when traditional broadcasters are looking for ways to hang on to Gen Z, eSports already has them: Almost 60% of 14 to 21-year-olds have watched a pro gaming tournament, according to a Washington Post poll. While traditional entertainment and sports businesses continue to struggle in the digital revolution, professional gaming offers something of a model for what’s next—in video games and beyond. An incoming generation is choosing pop culture’s future, outside of the traditional networks of celebrity.
What’s in this the Bundle?
If you want to be smart about investing in the eSports industry, you have to thoroughly research, analyse and understand the background of the individual businesses within the eSports industry while also staying on top of the latest regulatory updates. That's where things start to get complicated and time consuming.
This is where we come in.
We offer you access to a diversified investment Bundle that provides broad exposure to the eSports theme through an industry-leading exchange traded fund (ETF). This is the VanEck Vectors Video Gaming and eSports UCITS ETF which invests in a portfolio of stocks with the aim of providing investment returns that closely track the performance of the MVIS® Global Video Gaming and eSports Index (MVESPOTR). The MVIS Global Video Gaming & eSports Index is a global index that tracks the performance of the global video gaming and eSports segment. The index includes companies with at least 50% (25% for current components) of their revenues from video gaming and/or eSports.
Before investing, it's a good idea to understand the basics. For eSports stocks, that means learning about the industry itself.
Esports, short for “electronic sports”, is the growing business of playing video games competitively in front of a viewing audience.
There is not a singular “eSport.” The word roughly translates to “sport,” and just like traditional sports, a variety of different games have attracted a dedicated professional community. The most popular games, according to Twitch, are League of Legends and Overwatch. The NBA, NFL and FIFA all hold tournaments for the digitised versions of their corresponding sports. That means there’s a difference between a professional soccer player and a professional FIFA 19 player. Spectators watch eSports in-person and on Amazon owned Twitch. Incredibly, the biggest tournaments have sold out Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center, and Staples Center.
Why invest in the eSports industry?
Video games have gone mainstream – moving from clunky PCs and expensive consoles, to the mobile devices we have in our pockets every day. Now, more people are playing video games than ever before. Whether it is Casual Single-Players games that can be played anywhere, at any time on a smartphone, or Battle Royale games such as Fortnite where squads compete to be the last ones standing, gamers have many choices. But it’s not just about playing video games. Watching other gamers play online is becoming increasingly popular and now rivals the viewership of traditional sports among younger gamers.
Last year, an estimated 100 million viewers tuned into the League of Legends World Championship series. That’s almost as many viewers as the 2018 Super Bowl, and it didn’t involve a television network: It was hosted online on Twitch, an Amazon-owned live-streaming service that is quickly becoming just as influential as any cable network.
As a consequence, brands increasingly have been looking at the business of eSports in the same way they view traditional mainstream sports like basketball or football: as a great opportunity to engage with young consumers at scale.
In 2020 we saw major brands including Nike, BT, and Kia Motors all unveil partnerships with eSports teams set to compete in the 2020 League of Legends World Championship tournament, sponsored by Louis Vuitton.
At a time when traditional broadcasters are looking for ways to hang on to Gen Z, eSports already has them: Almost 60% of 14 to 21-year-olds have watched a pro gaming tournament, according to a Washington Post poll. While traditional entertainment and sports businesses continue to struggle in the digital revolution, professional gaming offers something of a model for what’s next—in video games and beyond. An incoming generation is choosing pop culture’s future, outside of the traditional networks of celebrity.
What’s in this the Bundle?
If you want to be smart about investing in the eSports industry, you have to thoroughly research, analyse and understand the background of the individual businesses within the eSports industry while also staying on top of the latest regulatory updates. That's where things start to get complicated and time consuming.
This is where we come in.
We offer you access to a diversified investment Bundle that provides broad exposure to the eSports theme through an industry-leading exchange traded fund (ETF). This is the VanEck Vectors Video Gaming and eSports UCITS ETF which invests in a portfolio of stocks with the aim of providing investment returns that closely track the performance of the MVIS® Global Video Gaming and eSports Index (MVESPOTR). The MVIS Global Video Gaming & eSports Index is a global index that tracks the performance of the global video gaming and eSports segment. The index includes companies with at least 50% (25% for current components) of their revenues from video gaming and/or eSports.
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