The place where you will get the best view of what is happening in the esports sector at present is FaZe Clan.
You will have likely heard of FaZe as being one of the biggest names in CSGO Gaming and they regularly compete at the highest level of the game at tournaments such as ESL and DreamHack. Players regularly like to place bets on a variety of these tournaments using sites like CS:GOBettor where they list the best CSGO betting sites in the industry.
The video game lifestyle firm has garnered 19 million followers on Instagram, Twitch and YouTube, and this is more than the 7.2 million that follow the Dallas Cowboys and 6 million that follow the New York Yankees put together. It was last month that it got on board the esports franchise trend, giving the Call of Duty League team of the Atlanta Esports Ventures the right to its name, the Atlanta FaZe, and this singular step according to them secured them a line of sponsorships from firms like GFuel and Nissan worth millions.
The partnership with the Atlanta FaZe is the first they’ve ever had since the firm started operations nine years ago. Within the years, it has sponsored more than 40 individual players to many competitions, and they’ve succeeded in landing more than 6 titles within the period. The FaZe clan is currently valued at $240 million, and this places it at the 4th position in the Forbes second annual ranking of the most valuable esports firms.
According to a co-owner and CEO of FaZe clan, Lee Trink, he has no desire to change places with any of the people on the Forbes list.
There is enough evidence for him to make such statements. The audience garnered by video game competitions across the globe rose to 454 million, and this is expected to increase by 190 million within the next 3 years according to the analysis by Newzoo. According to explanations by Nielsen, an average esports fan is a millennial male who goes home with about $70,000 per annum as salary and prefers to stream games from Mixer, YouTube and Twitch, instead of watching on TV. The sponsorships, media rights, and advertisements have grown to $897 million, a double of what was obtainable 3 years back.
Putting everything into consideration, the revenue of esports across the globe is estimated to hit $1.1 billion by the end of the year, signaling a 27% increase in what was available in 2018. The North American continent accounts for 40% of the entire fund. Currently, there are up to 13 firms that are valued above $100 million, and the average value is placed at $217 million, more than 52% increase from what it was last year.
According to billionaire Mark Cuban, the owner of Dallas Mavericks of the NBA, it is a very bad business to own an esports team in the United States. The regular changes that are made to game features by the publishers annoy him so much. For him, the value of the US market is going down when compared to that of the Asian market. He has an NBA 2k league esports team, even though he dismissed the availability of any franchise fee and accepts that there are defined costs. He also invested in esports betting.
However, those who believe in the wonders of esports are taking none of the points he raised to heart. Information from Crunchbase says that up to $20 million was raised by Envy Gaming in January, and that the Dallas Empire and Dallas Fuel of the Overwatch League that will take part in the 2020 slated Call of Duty League of 12 teams now belong to them. According to Ptchbook, in April, the Gen.G raised $46 million, and this is the highest amount by any of the teams that made the Forbes list. Will Smith the actor, and the minority owner of Los Angeles Clippers Dennis Wong, were some of the investors in this project.
When they made the offer open, they had more than the numbers they needed and had to decide the partners that were best for them according to Gen.G CEO Chris Park. However, they all agreed that the best thing is to have enough funds, so that they can sojourn into the numerous promising investment opportunities.
Currently, the opportunities are coming in droves; including the long term deal he made with the NBA where the NBA is going to establish an NBA 2K League team in Shanghai, the first team that is completely independent of the NBA and the first outside North America
According to Ken Hersh, who is the chairman of Envy, they have content that young people and the majority of the US population are enjoying and taking part in more than they did with the traditional sports that have been at the mainstream all along.
The esports program has no rich history yet, but it has the promise to create one, with names like the Counter-Strike and Call of Duty celebrating up to 20 years of being here, while the League of Legends has been here for more than 10 years.
In the ranking by Forbes, firms that were captured are those worth more than $100 million. They considered the 2019 revenue, and made the estimate based on interviews with the investors and executive members of the firms. Here, we are talking about money earned by the firms from the prizes of the competitions, sources of local events, merchandise sales, shares of revenue from leagues, and monies from sponsorships. The money earned by the players from the prize pool is not added. They also get information about this from the sponsors and analysts of the industry. 3 of the teams that appeared in the ranking last year are not there again, and they include Echo sports that destroyed itself with hate speech and restraining order attempt news and Infinite Sports that Immortals gaming club acquired.
Below Are the 5 Leading Names in the Ranking
- Immortals Gaming Club
Current worth: $210 million
Leap from 2018: $110 million
Estimated revenue: $11 million
Franchise league teams: CDL – OpTic Gaming Los Angeles, OWL – Los Angeles Valiant and LCS – Immortals
Non franchise teams: Rainbow Six (MIBR), CS:GO (MIBR) and Clash Royale (Immortals)
- FaZe Clan
Current worth: $240 million
Leap from 2018: Not Ranked
Estimated revenue: $35 million
Franchise league teams: None
Non franchise teams: FIFA, Rainbow Six Siege, Fortnite, PUBG, Call of Duty and CS:GO.
- Team Liquid
Current worth: $320 million
Leap from 2018: $120 million
Estimated revenue: $24 million
Franchise league teams: LCS – Team Liquid
Non franchise teams: Team Fight Tactics, Smash Ultimate, Hearthstone, PUBG, Rainbow Six Siege, StarCraft2, CS:GO, and Dota 2
- Team SoloMid
Current worth: $400 million
Leap from 2018: $150 million
Estimated revenue: $35 million
Franchise league teams: LCS – Team Solomid
Non franchise teams: Teamfight Tactics, The Gathering, Apex Legends, Overwatch, Hearthstone, PUBG, League of Legends Academy and many others.
- Cloud9
Current worth: $400 million
Leap from 2018: $90 million
Estimated revenue: $29 million
Franchise league teams: Overwatch – London Spitfire and LCS – Cloud9
Non franchise teams: Teamfight Tactics, Rocket League, PUBG, Rainbow Six, Hearthstone, CS:GO and some others.