You could fill a library with all the arguments on Internet forums about whether eSports are actually sports or not, but they’re definitely a competition, and that’s good enough for DraftKings. The company, which allows users to create fantasy sports teams and have them compete with other teams online for real money, announced earlier this week that it’ll be adding support for eSports next month. The problem with this is the fact that the majority of eSports is centered in Asia, and DraftKings is exclusively a North American company, but maybe this will be a good platform for international expansion.
DraftKings wants to be involved in all the sports, even the ones played from your living room. Beginning next month, the daily fantasy site is adding competitive video gaming — commonly referred to as eSports — to its list of fantasy offerings. That means you can draft a team of professional gamers and compete head to head or in a group against others online for real money, the same way you can compete on the site in more traditional fantasy sports like football and baseball. There’s one very good reason for DraftKings to get into this aspect of fantasy play: eSports has a massive audience. Market research company SuperData estimates that 134 million people around the world watch eSports and that the industry generates more than $600 million in annual revenue. That’s a lot of potential DraftKings users. The major downside is that eSports is most popular in Asia, which generates over 60 percent of the industry’s revenue. Right now, DraftKings only operates in the United States and Canada, which means that the bulk of eSports fans won’t be able to play. At least not yet.
