Opinion: IndyCar Needs to Seize eSports Opportunity
The way we as a society consume entertainment these days is constantly evolving. We stream, DVR, on-demand and “YouTube” our content more than ever. Not to mention new versions of entertainment entering the fray as well. A hot topic in the today’s digital entertainment landscape is eSports.
Wikipedia defines eSports as: competition that is facilitated by electronic systems, particularly video games; the input of players and teams as well as the output of the eSports system are mediated by human-computer interfaces. In short, competitive video game events.
They are taking place globally across many gaming platforms, in many different genre of games. From fighting games (Street Fighter, Injustice: Gods Among Us 2) to first person shooters (Counter Strike, Halo). This has quickly become a multi-million dollar industry, with players earning upwards of six figures a year. Teams descend from all over the world to play in certain tournaments, with cash prizes, sponsored by big companies, and train 8-10 hours a day to hone their craft. eSports has a reached a level of notoriety, at least here in America, that ESPN has a section of its website dedicated to it.
If all that isn’t convincing enough, here are a few monetary stats: the eSports industry generated $325 million in revenue in 2015, and on track to make over $400 million in 2016. It had over 71 million viewers in 2015 through YouTube and Twitch services. And impressively, it had an 85 percent male audience between the ages of 18–34.
If you’re wondering what this all means you’d have to look at the unique characteristics of simulation driving games. Video games like Forza Motorsport, Project Cars, iRacing, Gran Turismo and F1 2017 have physics engines and graphics so realistic, it can be hard to tell the game from reality; with a majority of consumers within the target demographic.
Within Motorsport, McLaren F1 Team took a gamble on eSports in 2017 that they held a year-long competition to see who would become “The World’s Fastest Gamer”. The grand prize: being McLaren’s test simulation driver for the 2018 racing season. The winner was Rudy van Buren of Lelystad, Netherlands. He beat out 30,000 global challengers for the prize. Also, Formula 1 held its first eSports championship, which it live streamed on it’s Facebook, YouTube and Twitch channels. The final was held at the season finale of Abu Dhabi and the winner, Brendon Leigh from England, taking the prize in his digital Toro Rosso. Walking away with “money-can’t-buy prizes”.
The Formula 1 competition statistics are compelling, with over 60,000 competitors, the final had 1.8 million views, 2.8 million minutes of streaming time, 54,000 views on Twitch, 6.1 million Instagram impressions, 7.8 million Twitter impressions, 950,000 views on YouTube (total), and the finale video on YouTube had 450,000 views. That total beats the view total of the Madden 2017 football finals (227k views) and NBA 2K17 finals (259k views). All of those stats according to F1.com and there’s more that I’m not listing.
These are numbers in a digital age, that cannot be ignored. With the demographic being vastly in the 18-34 range, eSports has to be looked at as a very serious part of a series marketing and engagement plan. This is where IndyCar needs to make its stand.
This can be a huge opportunity for IndyCar in 2018 and beyond. If IndyCar partners with a console company like Microsoft or Sony; market it like crazy; offer the finale to be played at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the month of May, with the winner getting to ride in the Honda two-seater and all expense paid weekend to the Indy 500, and be race starter for a race of their choice. How could this fail?
IndyCar gets brand partnership with a Microsoft or Sony; key demographic engagement, in a growing entertainment niche; and series recognition, it’s a win-win-win. I hope someone at 16th and Georgetown (location of IMS) is taking notice. F1 set a new precedent, but there is much more room to grow in this flourishing market.
Should IndyCar decide to invest in eSports, one way is they can make it part of their NEXT campaign. In this manner they can signal to fans that this is the series becoming more interactive, and more inclusive, while showing potential sponsors its growth and profit potential as a race series.
So what’s next for IndyCar? It could be coming to a video game console near you. Stay tuned.