eSports - Global
Services Provided: International Licensing Development
The Assignment
The global esports market is rapidly growing and is expected to exceed US$ 9 Billion by 2032. We were approached by a young European based esports café concept with a fully digitized platform for reservation, pay and play at selected retail locations. Friends would gather at a venue and play games against each other as well as online with players around a region. Games would be licensed and downloaded to venues based on popularity by market. This type of social activity is extremely popular with young males globally. Our assignment was to collaborate with the client to develop an effective international licensing strategy for the concept.
Our Approach
Our initial approach was to reach out to esports experts around the world to learn more about the business and gain insights into key deal points. We also confirmed the top priority markets in terms of market size – both revenues and number of players. We then did a deep dive into several of the high priority markets to better understand government rules and regulations, if any, which could impact the business. For example, gaming has negative connotations in markets like China and Korea given the addictive nature of the play with young males, which can lead to restrictions by age as well as time of day and length of play.
We also conducted store level financial modeling scenarios by benchmarking other similar activities.
Results
The client has a clear development roadmap to follow and can focus on the highest potential markets which offer the greatest financial returns. Generally, these are more developed markets where young males have more spending power, smaller homes, and the highest use of smartphones to access the online world.