Structure and organisation of Esports in the UK

Structure of Esport in the UK P1

Esports in the UK unlike some other countries is yet to be considered a sport unlike countries such as Germany, and The USA despite it meeting most of the requirements. The DCMS is the is repsonsible for the advancement of digital infrastructure to promote sport, but they are yet to begin focusing on esport. However the DCMS have started to hire people for their esport sector to further support esport in the UK. The most notable organisation in the UK dedicated to esports called the British Esports Organisation. It is a non-profit organisation with the objective to improve awareness of Esports and increase the standards of its players. The British Esports Association does not hold control over how the tournaments are run that comes down to the game industries themselves such as Riot Games, Blizzard, and several other different industries depending on what game is being played. The way that The British Esport Association deals with esport is very similar to that of how major organisations involved in traditional sport would do so. For example the DCMS is similar to The British Esport Association in the way that their primary goal is to promote esport and traditional sport to make both of the options more viable career choices. Ukie also plays a big role in esports they represent over 400 of the UK's games and interactive businesses. Their main role is to set up tournaments and provide the equipment that is needed to run those tournaments. NUEL is also involved it is the largest university in the UK that sets up esports tournaments. With over 15,000 students they aim to make a social gaming environment for their students. Esports is massively impacting the game industry by giving huge video game publishers another form of revenue and advertising. The revenue from esports is significantly higher than what is used to be due to the growth in gaming. The total amount of money earned in esport in 2018 was 900 million which is almost double that of the year before, this shows an exponential growth in viewership, ticket sales, and any other forms of income related to esport. Esport is also a great form of advertisement for example Riot Games used The League of Legends World Championship to greatly boost their in game sales and the amount of people playing their game. They also used the enourmous viewership of 4 million concurrent viewers to advertise their TV show which greatly increased it's success so much so that it became the top show in the world within a week. This shows that similary to traditional sport huge tournaments are a marketing opportunity.

NSE

NSE operates the university championship on average they see over 1700 teams compete. The NSE is run by Intel which is a major computer company that often supplies popular tournaments with the needed equipment. The NSE also works with major game publishers such as Riot Games, Blizzard, and Activision to set up their tournaments.

Profit and not for profit organisations

There are two types of organisations, being commercial and not-for-profit. The aim of a commercial organisation is to make profits. They are heavily focused on minimising losses. Whereas a non-profit is not run by a company and the profits that are made are often given to the group running it such as schools or sometimes charity. An example of a not-for-profit organisation is the British Esports Association which is responsible for promoting esport in the UK.

Event Organisers

The most popular events such as the Overwatch League and the Fortnite Championship are set up by large companies over the world to maximise the viewer's experience. There are several event organisers the most notable of which being ESL it is a German esports organiser and has been in operation for the longest comparer to the others. The other organisers include Epic, Gfinity, and several others.