Finances in Esports | Course Paper

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Finances in Esports

Brandon Matthews

Union College

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Table of Contents:

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….3

Salaries…………………………………………………………………………………………….3

Sponsorship……………………………………………………………………………………….6

Prize Money………………………………………………………………………………………10

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….12

Reference…………………………………………………………………………………………13

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Introduction:

Esports is the most rapidly growing industry in the market today. Esports are known as

electronic sports, or also known as competitive video games. Now as much fun as this sounds,

it’s actually very strenuous and stressful. Typical professional esports players spend a minimum

of 50 hours a week practicing but most players to be the best play far more. In the world of

esports there are several different ways to look at the finances, such as the money from salaries,

sponsorships, and also prize money.

Salaries:

Whenever it comes to playing a video game for a living there are many different games to

choose from. The top games at the moment that pay the most are, “Dota 2, League of Legends,

Counter-Strike; Global Offensive, and StarCraft II.” (EsportsEarnings) There are thousands all

the way to millions of dollars invested into these games and into having tournaments. On top of

tournaments there are organizations that are represented by the players that offer the players’

salaries in order to compete for them. Also major developing companies who create the games

off the players’ salaries to compete in a league, just like a professional sports team.

Team SoloMid:

Team SoloMid is one of the biggest and most known names whenever it comes to the

Esports scene. Team SoloMid or TSM was originally a League of Legends team, founded by

Andy “Reginald” Dinh. Since then TSM has branched out into other games such as,

“Hearthstone. Heroes of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Counter–Strike; Global Offensive.”

Whenever you are a big brand such as this one you need incentives to bring in star players, so

TSM is one of the first brands to offer their players’ salaries.

In early 2015 Team SoloMid acquired the Danish Counter-Strike; Global Offensive team

formally known as, “Team Dignitas.” This was a huge mark in the Counter-Strike community

because TSM offered the players an amount that they couldn’t refuse. Daily Dot states that, “The

players are being paid $3,000 a month each, which is a vast amount in Counter-Strike terms.”

They go on to say that, “SoloMid will also take no percentage of any prize money, either from

online tournaments or LAN events, according to this person.” (Dotesports) right off the top of

your head $3,000 a month doesn’t seem like that much work, however the Future value of that is

an annual salary of around $36,000 per year. This is around a 41% increase in payment from

your typical 40 hours per week minimum wage paying job. However, the work load of a typical

professional Counter-Strike is around 2,397.9 hours, which is 609 hours more than the United

States average.