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The eSports industry will receive 70% of all revenue from sponsors and advertisers in 2016, according to a Newzoo market report.
The Global Esports Market Report expects brands, like endemic sponsors EIZO to the non-endemic Coca-Cola and PepsiCo companies, to spend $325m this year.
That number represents a 49% growth on last year’s figures, and extrapolation of data suggests that more than $800m is set to be pumped into the sector by 2019, when the total market value will pass $1bn.
The explosive growth of esports and the ongoing convergence of games and video provides the biggest opportunity for the games industry since the launch of the iPhone back in 2007," says Newzoo CEO Peter Warman. "Supercell’s Clash Royale, the announcement of Rocket League esports and the $1 billion investment into Chinese streaming platform Douyu are somerecent examples that confirm this."
The audience for eSports is primarily composed of the much coveted "millenial" demographic for marketers, with more than half of players and viewers aged between 21 and 35.
This attractive demographic has attracted brands from outside the sphere of influence usually afforded to sports or high-volume entertainment products, so-called non-endemic brands.
Heinrich Zetlmayer, Managing Director of ESL parent company Turtle Entertainment, said: "2016 will see an accelerated growth of non-endemic consumer brands’ engagement in eSports.”
Newzoo believes this will be spurred on by the entrance of Yahoo to the eSports ecosystem, offering coverage to a wider audience.
