Esports bid for Olympic Games inclusion gathers traction as Australian powerbrokers weigh in

AUSTRALIAN video gaming powerbrokers have sensationally declared the Olympic Games needs to add esports to the agenda if it wants to sure up its long-term future.

AUSTRALIAN video gaming powerbrokers have sensationally declared the Olympic Games needs to add esports to the agenda if it wants to sure up its long-term future.

The International Olympic Committee is considering adding esports as a medal event at the 2024 Games in Paris as the sport continues to display enormous growth in all corners of the globe.

Estimated to be a $1.5 billion global industry last year, projections are that esports could add up to 50 per cent to its worth by 2020, making it one of the world’s fastest growing sports.

Esports Games Association Australia chief executive and sports lawyer Mat Jessep said while some questioned whether or not esports needed the Olympic Games, he looked at it a different way.

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“I flip that and think the IOC will need esports, so I can see it happening,” he said.

“From a commercial point of view it makes a lot of sense for the IOC. They lost McDonald’s as an Olympic partner last year around the same time as McDonald’s announced that they were becoming a partner with the Overwatch video game title. That might have been coincidental but it was a really neat coincidence for esports to see a major global supporter of the Olympic brand jumping off midterm and onto esports.

“From an audience point of view, from a fan engagement point of view, it’s just so strong an argument for a body like the IOC to partner with esports.”

Bombers captain Sebastian De Ceglie and teammate Carlo La Civita train at their new facility at Essendon Football Club in Tullamarine. Picture: Ian Currie

McDonald’s is not the only major brand to jump on the esports bandwagon in recent times, with fellow fast food giant Hungry Jacks in January leaping at the opportunity to become the presenting partner of the Oceanic Pro League for the world’s biggest game League of Legends.

Rohan Sawyer, a former investment banker who is now tied up with AFL club Essendon’s League of Legends team, said he believed it was just a matter of time before the IOC took on esports.

“I’m a bit of a traditionalist but I think it will happen,” Sawyer said.

“If you asked me three or four years ago will esports be in the Olympics I’d probably put you in a white jacket and take you away. But I think without a doubt within the next three cycles — 12 years — it will be in there for sure.”

Jessep said while he did not “see esports competing with traditional sports” in the near future it was clear more Millennials — also known as Generation Y — were showing less interest in athletics and swimming and instead living in the digital sphere.

“If we look at esports as a big bucket, it’s only getting bigger,” he said.

“Esports fans are all digital natives. They’re all living in the digital world. Some of them don’t even have free-to-air TV screens. This is where traditional sports are wanting to get to, they’re wanting to get better engagement in the digital world.”