Today, I came across an article about e-sports and how the prize pools are predicted to surpass those of traditional sports, even the NHL and FIFA. What are your thoughts on this trend? Is this the next crypto/cannabis craze? Is there a good ETF? Have you invested in the sector, and if so, how? Tuhansia tietokonepelejä julkaistaan joka vuosi – Miksi juuri Dota 2 on yksi maailman suosituimmista kilpapeleistä? | Yle
Companies that come to mind suddenly:
Of course, gaming companies:
Activision Blizzard
Take-Two Interactive
Electronic Arts
Tencent?
Valve Corp (private)
Streaming platforms:
Alphabet (YouTube)
Amazon (Twitch)
Telia also seemed to rush into the field for a while? I doubt this is a new “crypto craze” for investors, as all these companies are already big and established players in the industry.
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Verner has already provided a list of companies through which one can access esports. I’ve also been looking into this, as all signs point to the industry growing significantly in the future, and I’d like to be a part of it in some way. However, among the listed companies, there isn’t currently a very good option for taking a direct view on esports. In all the companies Verner mentioned, esports is such a small part of the overall business that an investment case betting on them would depend very much on other factors than the growth of esports. At the moment, the best cases are still unlisted companies, and for example, in the US, HP’s former CEO has started investing in esports. Former eBay and HP CEO Meg Whitman Is Betting On the Future of eSports | Fortune
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This weekend, I took a moment to watch the CS:GO Major tournament on Yle… the scene has really developed since my CS 1.3 - 1.6 days from the early 2000s… would I be a millionaire by now if I had just spent my life gaming 
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Yeah, Telia bought Assembly, but the Finnish scene is still really small. The USA is a pioneer in esports. Twitch seems to be the most heavily involved in esports for now (all broadcasts). We’re talking about several hundred thousand viewers when a CS:GO Major or Dota 2 tournament is played, for example. That’s a place for advertisers to get international attention 
What’s going to happen now that China is censoring Twitch, by the way? Striimisivusto Twitch on estetty Kiinassa - Tilt.fi
Of course, they can watch with a VPN, but still.
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My gut feeling is that I wouldn’t want to put money into EA, but if Steam went public, then I would.
EA has been getting a lot of negative feedback lately, and their biggest game series are losing popularity year by year. They need to develop something new.
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Facebook is also trying to get in on the action,
I wasn’t particularly impressed with the quality of Facebook’s streams, but since it’s Facebook, this also has to be taken into account.
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Quite interesting… FB makes it really easy to reach large masses; it’s not just limited to active followers of the sport. This will give it more visibility “as if by itself.”
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One company worth considering could be http://ir.huya.com/
China’s largest streaming platform, now that Twitch has been censored…
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I have to add Modern Times Group from the Nordics to Verner’s list. They own at least the ESL and Dreamhack brands, which organize some of the biggest esports tournaments. Of course, this isn’t solely an esports company, as they have a pretty big list of brands, but it feels like esports will play a significant role in their future.
I haven’t become a shareholder yet, but it’s an interesting option. I’m also really bad at doing my own valuations and such, and good analysis of the company is relatively hard to find.
Here’s a picture of all the company’s different brands; the most well-known to Finns are probably CDON and Viaplay.
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I don’t know how it was for CS:GO, but at least for Dota 2, viewers didn’t like the Facebook and ESL deal at all. In a couple of tournaments that were streamed on Facebook, the unofficial Twitch stream had more viewers than the official Facebook stream.
And I don’t think Twitch’s China ban affects much, as Chinese people haven’t used Twitch on a large scale at any point; they have their own platforms.
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Totally agree that Facebook streams have been a complete farce, and the whole experiment has only received criticism. It certainly feels like ESL themselves are aware of this and will return to Twitch once these contracts come to an end. I seem to recall hearing somewhere that the Dota contract ends at the end of this year, and the CS contract at the end of 2019.
Telia is setting up an esports league. I liked the news so much that I took a slice at @3.76. It’s a safe dividend stock, if nothing else. Who knows when these esports investments will become profitable, but the future is the future. It’s great that operators are involved in this.
Great move by Telia 
Elisa also has a Twitch page where they stream at least the Finnish PUBG league - they had several hundred viewers when I once spotted it. They also had some ‘subscribers’. They also get ad revenue from Twitch. It’s a different matter whether it’s profitable yet. Still, E-sports has some kind of future.
Let’s bump this up a bit. I’ve also been looking for a while for an investment opportunity that would get me on the esports rising elevator. I see the most potential in CS:GO tournaments and competitive gaming.
The Modern Times Group that Kalle mentioned could be a good option. I’ve also considered getting involved with device manufacturers. At least Intel and Nvidia are heavily featured in tournaments. Can anyone tell if they are really the best manufacturers or if there are better ones that real gamers appreciate?
Nvidia has long dominated the graphics card chip market. These chips are then used by several manufacturers, such as Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, etc. The same story applies to Intel on the CPU side.
The only real competitor is AMD, which manufactures CPUs, and their latest Ryzen is particularly competitive in terms of price-performance ratio. AMD also manufactures graphics cards after acquiring ATI Radeon a few years ago. However, it’s difficult to say how successful challenging Intel and Nvidia will ultimately be. Another point is that PCs and gaming are not the sole/best source of income, especially for Intel.
Perhaps it would be better to focus on peripherals such as mice, keyboards, headphones, chairs, or similar products specifically designed for gamers.
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My friend found this ETF focused on the gaming industry and competitive gaming, which seems interesting. However, it might not be available through Finnish brokers (I quickly glanced, didn’t research further). https://nerdetf.com/
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That’s a video game ETF, not an esports ETF, no matter how misleadingly they advertise it. There are a lot of game companies there that have nothing to do with esports.
Yeah, a couple of my acquaintances also praised AMD’s Ryzen processors. As for peripherals, I mainly use Logitech stuff, so investing in that would feel nice too.
Steam’s listing was great
The first Esports team, Astralis, was listed on Denmark’s First North list.
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