Gaming and e-sports is one of the fastest growing sports globally and South Africa is no exception to the rule with South African e-sports stars earning a total of R3,78-million in 2018, up 6,8% year-on-year.
While still not at the same level as some of the international markets, the quality of the competition is growing with local teams chasing leaders from Europe and Asia.
Globally, e-sports is expected to be worth more than R15-billion in 2019.
According to a PWC media report from 2018, the number of fans in South Africa increased to 35 845 in 2017 from 33,000 in 2015. And, with more than 160 000 unique Twitch connections in 2018, South Africans are showing a hunger for e-sports.
The rise of esports can be attributed to a number of elements, not least of which is the growing popularity globally but locally there has been an increase in the number of tournaments that take place annually throughout the country, and as these tournaments grow in popularity, so does the prize pools and therefore the competition is getting more and more fierce.
With the growth in viewership as a backdrop, local brands can no longer ignore the projected high growth in the sector in streaming and sponsorship revenue. More importantly, brands have to invest in these avenues early, before the market is saturated. Those brands that saw this potential a decade ago are still making waves in this space.
Moreover, this growth cannot be ignored by brands wanting to reach a variety of audiences as gaming reaches more than just the old stereotypical idea of what a gamer looks like. These days gaming is attractive to all spheres and while still predominately male, the female teams and those from more diverse backgrounds are rapidly on the increase.
Additionally, fans don’t view brand involvement in the sport as necessarily negative. Instead, the data from the four major western markets shows that between 50% and 60% of fans have favourable responses towards brand involvement in tournaments, streams or sports events.
Telkom VS Gaming is the premier gaming league, not only in South Africa, but across the continent. With 33 500 members it has grown 15% year on year. It is this growth that has propelled Telkom VS Gaming to invest more and more in tournaments and events such as Comic Con Africa where they will be holding their Masters Finals for Dota2 and CS:GO with a combined prize pool of R1,14-million.
“Telkom backed gaming before it was cool to do so. As a corporate we acknowledged that we wanted to play in the space that our customers were interested in, as well as potentially tapping into brand new markets for us and this resulted in us creating what is now the premier league on the continent,” says Wanda Mkhize executive: content for Telkom VS Gaming.