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35 Best eSports Business ideas You Can Start Today

eSports Team

Do you want to make money with eSports but you lack ideas? If YES, here are 35 best money making eSports business ideas & opportunities you can start today. eSports is an acronym for Electronic Sports.

This is the general name that is given to professional competitive virtual gaming. Competitors in eSports play video games, while being watched by a live audience. The sports are of course played over the internet, so millions more can watch the games online, thus following up with the live audience.

One major eSport tournament, the 2016 League of Legends World Championship finals, attracted 43 million viewers both online and offline.

In case you may not know, but winning eSports tournaments can net participants up to $25 million when winnings, sponsorship and appearance fees are taken into account. The highest earning player till date, German Kuro Takhasomi, has earned almost $3.5 million so far.

In 2018, the eSports industry was projected to generate $905 million in revenue, reaching over $1 billion over the next two years. eSports viewers spent 17.9 million hours watching their gaming heroes on those viewing channels in the first quarter of 2018.

The eSports industry is growing so fast that global sporting organizations are taking a more keen look into it. You too should. As a still emerging industry with loads of potentials, any gaming enthusiast can key in to set up a business now. If you have been nursing an idea of setting up your own eSports business, we have provided you a few great ideas.

Best eSports Business ideas

1. Wagering sites

A wager is essentially a bet or money that is spent on either an online slot, a casino game, bingo game, poker game or a table game.

Sports enthusiasts have long been placing bets on various sports, so why not on eSports. Setting up a wagering site strictly for eSports is one good way to get into the industry. If you have the financial capacity and capability, this is one good business to look into.

2. Influencer Marketing

Sport and brands looking to promote their products have always gone hand in hand. Large brands have noted the impact eSport have and responded by getting involved in significant eSports events. You can set up a full-service influencer marketing agency, covering virtually every niche, sector, and social network.

And this includes gaming and eSports, with a particular emphasis on helping you work with influencers on Twitch. Influencer marketing is one eSport business with the lowest barrier of entry, lowest monetary investment, and highest potential.

3. Recruiting agency

eSport PROs are known to retire young because they burnout quickly. They practice for 10–12 hours a day for years and eventually they lose their focus and ability to react as quick as they use to.

So, there will need to be a recruiting agency able to churn out high quality talent continuously. If you know how to reach out to eSports players and you as well have a contact for clubs or agencies needing these players, you can set up an eSport recruiting agency.

4. Event organizers

Electronic Sports League (ESL) is responsible for organizing a host of major tournaments across the globe. It is the largest video game event company in the world and is well-backed financially. But you may not go this big while starting business.

As an eSports event organizer, you may occasionally need to organize entire festivals or eSports exhibitions or handle the event management of trade shows and more. The key to organizing a successful eSports event is to define the objectives and expectations around it before choosing a suitable venue. You may not want to handle this kind of business on your own unless you are starting real small.

5. Set up Local portals and content sharing sites

Localization and translation was always an important thing for fans, not everybody speaks English perfectly. This would be the major function of your local eSports portal. You can set up a content sharing site that would be a source for esports business news and insights.

You can offer an integrated platform that would enable companies make the right decisions when venturing into the esports industry. The platform would also be a way for eSports enthusiasts to gather to share ideas, concerns and post their questions.

Note that your gaming website templates need to be responsive and lightweight so as to load easily. It also needs to support all the major types of content in order to give you the freedom to streamline games, share posts, display charts, etc.

6. Collective organizations

As a traditional sport emerges, governing bodies or organisations quickly become necessary to provide disciplinary action for rule infractions, or to decide on rule changes for their respective sport. It also worth noting that, except for a select few player associations, no esports federation or association is based around a single game.

There is indeed a huge demand for organizations that will control the eSports ecosystem. This presents a good business to get into. You can pick a niche where you are quite knowledgeable in and kick off the process of registering your eSports organisation or governing body.

7. Build eSports Tournament hosting platforms

Yet another way to break into the eSports industry in a big way is to build tournament hosting platforms for agencies and even for individuals who what to do their business on their own. To start this business, you need to have above average coding skills and you have to know the technicalities surrounding eSporting platforms.

8. Become a Sponsor

Companies sponsoring large events, sports teams, and personalities is nothing new. But how about the up-and-coming industry of competitive esports?

We know that hundreds of millions of people play computer games every day. And many attend esports events in large stadiums or watch them from the comfort of their homes on Twitch. So, the audience is there, how about the sponsors? You can become a sponsor and reap your revenues for there.

9. Esports news station

There are radio news channels dedicated to everything sports, and they never lack content even for one day. With the esports industry growing by the day, a lot of sporting online sporting events are going on by the hour. You can open a news station dedicated to esports and make your revenue off sponsors and ads.

10. The Esports T.V content

In the same way with opening an esports news channel, you can open an esports TV station where you can carry new, documentaries, features, etc on esports. Your revenues will come the level of publicity and followership you are bale to garner.

11. The E-sports network

You can set up an esports network that will become the go-to place for 24/7 access to all online e-sports news and media. If you are serious enough with this business, you will amass a fast-growing audience of fans on social media, YouTube and Twitch TV, and you can get over 30 million page views per month.

To be able to appeal to diverse audience, you have to make sure that your content is available in English, French, German, Spanish, and any other language you can afford to add. To spice things up, you can also offer insight into the lives of professional gamers and internet-grown celebrities, blending sports-style and lifestyle coverage to bring fans closer to a new generation of heroes and icons.

12. The Esports Journal

Though some people do look down on sports journals, but a lot more people do rely on them for their information, especially on things like sorts.

You can start writing an esports journal and target them at esports enthusiasts. No law says that you can not promote esports news though an offline medium like a journal. If you plan this business well, you would reap great profits from it.

13. The Esports ranking database

Quite few websites are popping up where they dedicate their affairs to ranking everything that concerns esports. They rank players, games, tournaments, and everything in between. A website like this is guaranteed to draw in millions of views every month.

14. Organize e-sports contest

Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. This is the beauty of the sports. If you can, you should start up a business where you organize contests for eSports players.

You can start this locally before you take it to the world. You only need to build a suitable app to host your contests, and solicit for sponsors to sponsor your contests.

15. Sell eSports products

One good way to break into the esports industry is to sell esports engraved products. It is extremely straight forward to have products like this made in China with the logo of various esports teams or players on them, have them shipped to you and sell them for a good margin.

It’s 100% not all ‘been there done that’ because every year the e-sports and gaming community reaches new heights as far as viewers, prize pools and contests go.

16. Social network for competitive gamers

There is absolutely no platform available for aspiring programmers to team up and make an esports team. With the large growth of the esports industry in the past few years and growing efforts of large companies to make esports more accessible to casual players, this is indeed a big opportunity.

Making a social platform for gamers supported by big companies (which share interests, are not hard to contact) should be your goal.

17. Host eSports micro-tournaments

If you live in an area where eSports is just starting to pick up its pace, a place that does not yet have the capacity nor the crowd. You can start promoting awareness of esports in your locality. You can do this by hosting mini tournaments to draw players with potentials out of their shells.

You can start by hosting these tournaments in every neighborhood, on a regular basis, with just small amount of resources and help from local companies, advertisers, academy and sponsors. You can go big in a short while and be able to call the shots in your area.

18. Ticket marketer

Last fall, tickets to watch the best gamers in the world compete live at Beijing National Stadium sold out in minutes. They also weren’t cheap. Tickets for the League of Legends world finals ranged from $41 to $185, which is akin to a Major League Baseball game.

So, esports tournament tickets are hot, and you can cash in on this business by opting to become a marketer of esporting event tickets. Connections are basically what you need to make a headway in this business.

19. Build esports software

Teams and players seeking to get a competitive edge are relying on high-tech software to track performance statistics. For instance, a company called Mobalytics offers a service that analyzes gaming data to categorize players based on a Gamer Performance Index (GPI), a set of statistics which break down individual players’ strengths and weaknesses based on millions of data points from their career.

You can create a similar software that can provide a yet to be provided service for esports players and fans. Your ability to promote your software is key to making a headway in the business.

20. Reality Show on Video Games

The hottest thing on TV today is reality show and whether you like it or not, people love to watch it. This is something that can be done it the esports industry. You can start hosting a TV reality show on video games. The game would organize a gaming event wherein a group of friends or cousins can turn up and showcase their gaming skills to win exciting prizes.

As these reality shows already are popular with the middle aged and children, brining video games would be the way to attract youth. Businesses like this can go a long way because shows like this can draw in a lot of sponsors and partnerships and then there is no stopping you.

21. Open an esports Gaming Centre in your area

Opening up an esports gaming centre is one of the oldest ways of venturing into the gaming industry and it is one of the golden ideas for profiting in this industry. This idea is a sure shot winner because all the people who can’t afford to buy gaming consoles for themselves will be more than happy to use the facility.

This is a way of bringing esports to every youngster who dreamt about it but is not able to afford it. What started with a single store can turn into a few more and become the biggest gaming company in the city.

22. Develop esports Games

It is the trait of an exceptional businessman to take the game to the next level and turn it up a notch. A futuristic businessman with a vision will want to build his own esports games and not make a business based on others’ games. In this time and age, learning how to develop video games is not as hard as it used to be and it needs a ton of passion towards gaming to actually go through the entire process and become a developer.

This is one of the profitable small business ideas for esports gamers and they can make the world dance to their own tunes instead of following the old tracks. This business idea can bring out the entrepreneur in you and also give you a chance to grow a seed into a tree.

23. Legal Betting System for esports Gaming

Betting is too vast a concept to be explained or comprehended in a paragraph. There are as many advantages as disadvantages about betting and making it a business can change the way people look at betting as well as gaming. By setting up a platform for esports gamers to bet against each other or a common entity, the competition is pushed to the next level, making the process more intense as well as leaving you rich.

It is important to make all arrangements to make sure that the operation is processed in a legal manner under strict guidelines. The popularity of the business will not be a problem as people love business ideas which can make them quick money.

24. eSport agency

Just like models have agencies, esports players also have agencies that connect them with clubs and teams. Your business would be dedicated to building partnerships between eSports players and influential brands that want to be represented by them.

You will work hand in hand with communication agencies to find the best sponsors (or brands) for their clients (the players). Both professional players and successful Twitch users (streamers) can then obtain the financing and sponsorship they need to participate in tournaments and to improve the quality of their in-game experience.

25. Online esports gaming centre

Internet has found solution to almost all the problems that man has today and it itself is the solution to few. When the capabilities of the internet are so vast and powerful, it obviously becomes a place for gaming. This would be a model of gaming where people don’t need to be physically present at a place but simply sit at home and play with anybody on this planet.

The esports gaming centre should have the option of audio chat for the gamers to communicate even if they can’t understand each other’s language through text. This is a beautiful way of bringing together people of different communities and countries together for gaming.

26. Blockchain-based esports streaming platform

With an internet based sporting event like esports, you should know that blockchain would have a role to play. You can provide a blockchain-based, decentralized streaming platform for gamers and eSports fans. Your platform should aim at providing players and fans a unique mixture of interactive features and monetizing tools – a combination currently unavailable on existing streaming platforms.

27. Memorabilia Sales

Sure, the value of some of those sportscards has come down drastically in recent years but there’s still a thriving sports memorabilia market, especially when you throw in esports. A word of advice: for as long as there has been sports memorabilia, there has been an active fraudulent sports memorabilia market, too. So you need to be very careful on how you proceed.

28. eSports League Organizer

As far as esports is concerned, starting an esports league on the local level is a real possibility for a creative entrepreneur. Amateur public basketball leagues, kickball leagues, dodgeball leagues all have someone at the helm to keep it all organized. You can be one of those people by starting in your small location.

29. Private Coach

A lot of people want to compete in esports events, but their skills are not yet up to par, and yet others may want to learn from the scratch. This is where a private coach is needed.

If you well-versed in the sports, you can set up a business where you sell your services to armatures as a private coach. Private coaches are still in demand and if you’re skilled in the sport, there’s a young protege in waiting who could benefit from one-to-one sessions.

30. eSports Camp Organizer

The primary purpose of many camps is educational, athletic, or cultural development. Camps can last anywhere from one day to a week or longer. These are specialized training sessions usually held during off-season months for players of a sport to hone their skills. If you have the capacity to, you can start organizing esports camps for players and trainers.

31. eSports Blogger

Got a passion for one particular team, sport, player, or league? Craft a clever domain name and get to producing a lot of content. The esports industry is very active, so you will not want for what to write.

You can equally organize interviews on players (if you can get hold of them) as a way to spice up your stories and get more people to come around. You know esports players are mostly ghosts, so people would be curious on their private lives.

32. eSports marketing company

An esports marketing company is a great way to start a business in the industry. You can start by working with a growing number of the best eSports teams, established organisations, as well as a new crop of player-owned teams. You can also provide commercial and marketing strategies for companies looking to enter and succeed in the wildly growing and challenging eSports market.

33. Build tools for esports games

There are tools that make the esports industry interesting. If you have the technical know-how, you can start building tools and services that help players and fans understand and master their favorite eSports games. You can also provide personalised guides and actionable insights based on individualised game data.

34. esports coaching marketplace

For schools you have teachers, for Universities you have lecturers & Professors, even for the many Sports you have Coaches of all levels, so why are there hardly any Coaches for gamers? You can bridge this gap by setting up an esports coaching marketplace which provides analytics and data visualisation and coaching for professional teams.

35. eSports analytics company

One good but technical business in the esports industry is an esports analytics business. You can set up this kind of business to provide live-odds, data content, as well as tournament and game analytics to players and other professionals in the field.

The valuable data collected by your company can also be used to offer premium services to betting companies, fantasy leagues, professional teams and media outlets. To start, you would need to assemble a team of data scientists and industry experts who focus exclusively on eSports.