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More and more new ways of marketing eSports are being invented daily and eSports is finally reaching out to companies outside the gaming market. But still there is a lack of common ground and with major investments in eSports being made someone needs to grab this matter and change it. The eSports market is at a point where it has several possibilities to choose from, and each choice directs the market into unique paths. The agendas of different continents' events and leagues are very different, especially between American, European and Asian events and leagues. The eSports teams and organisations also have different agendas but all have the same intention; to make eSports tomorrow’s big market. ”Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.” Bill Gates once said. That might end up being true as computers and the IT business are getting more accepted every day, as it is the best way to communicate with people all around the world. Just take a look at the American president election; people are using YouTube to ask the candidates their questions. As the IT market gets more accepted it gives the gaming and eSports markets a possibility to reach out to newer grounds, and that is an opportunity we have to take advantage of if we want eSports to become the next big market. In the past, top organisations were sponsored by computer and hardware companies, today several organisations are sponsored by non-gaming companies from the fast food, energy drinks and soda, gambling, TV and clothing markets; these companies are stepping in eSports, all trying to get a piece of this amazingly fast growing market.  

 

 
If you have ever watched popular sports such as Formula 1, Tennis or Golf, you have probably noticed that they have sponsors that don’t even get close to what they compete in. In F1 teams and different circuits have been sponsored by computer companies, telephone companies, in the past cigarette companies, shipping agencies, camera companies and none of those has any direct relation to cars. In tennis there is huge support to events and players from the watch, computer, car renting, coffee and ice-cream industries, and again no direct relation to the sport itself. But what these two sports have in common is that the companies that supports them reaches out to their primary target of audience through the sports and not the market itself. The people who watch and follow the sports are those who on a regular basis have a direct relation to those industries supporting the sport. eSports events and organisations, most of them, still tries to be supported by companies directly related to the market as they don’t put much focus on what industries the audience might relate to. That is why the companies outside the eSports industry don’t share a common ground with teams and events.
 
We will need to get to the point where eSports events and organisations will partner up with companies in other industries in order to reach a much broader audience and to make it clear for industrialists that there isn’t just teenagers involved in eSports anymore. eSports is a lot more today than it was 5 or 10 years ago. Very much like the changes Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) had to go through in order to merge into a popular industry. At the begining, UFC was seen as something brutal and not really as a sport. The political pressure grew and the sport had to reform, it introduced stricter rules and started to become more acceptable by society's standards, in a short period of time, it became so famous that today it can be watched all over the world. eSports was  also once seen as something brutal as you shoot and fight each other in different games. But the games have changed and with more knowledge of the in-game structure, politicians’ pressure have dropped drastically. Now what’s left is for a company that wants the biggest piece of the cake to actually make eSports tomorrow’s big market. But how?

 

DirecTV, an American based TV-network, is making one of the biggest investment ever made in eSports, worth several million dollars and building up franchises all over the world and handing out salaries to players worth $30,000 – $100,000 US dollars. They have picked five games and are trying to put together a league worth watching if you are a non-gamer. But unfortunately so far they haven’t even managed to get the interest from regular gamers. The problem lies in the fact that they are trying to control the market and further advance it at the same time, in their own ways. For example, they bought the entire rights to broadcast the popular game Counter-Strike 1.6 and its follow-up Source until January 31st 2008 in Europe and America. This action doesn’t show anything but the fact that they are running this project to be able to control the market in the future, rule out the other rivals and that they do not not give a damn damn about the market people have been building up for the past 10 years. But on the other hand as they have taken the initiative to run with Source instead of 1.6 one of the two big leagues in Europe has followed up. The Russian top league NPCL announced not long ago that they are changing from CS 1.6 to CSS for the upcoming season. They might get enough support from the community to actually build up tomorrow’s big market just because they have the money; yes they are able to buy a few souls in USA and other parts of the world, but many are also be against it. People aren’t joining this league because it is advancing the eSports market; they are joining for one simple but unfortunate reason, money.
 
What DirecTV could have done instead is to run this league with games that the community supports much more. Because if they do so, they have a lot more chances of actually taking eSports to newer grounds, newer medias and newer audiences. They can use the opportunity eSports is getting through Internet’s acceptance in the world and reach out to companies that no one ever thought of. Considering the CGS is reached by, according to themselves, more than 100 million people, they could easily reach companies in markets that are eager to make investments in tomorrow’s big market but don’t know which one it is yet.  
 
"Rome was not built in one day”

It is a fact that all great works take time to finish and “in order to succeed your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure” (Bill Cosby). This is why investments in new, unique markets and more non-gaming markets are what eSports need. Actions like those by Gamim, Cybershotz and DirecTV are needed for eSports to become popular and be accepted as it also gives non-gamers something to relate to gamers with.