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WRESTLING HAS A BIG POTENTIAL TO ENTER THE ESPORTS MARKET

Professional Wrestling as a sports activity has been linked to many forms of entertainment for creative ideas. Wrestlers are inspired by music, movies and video games for character charisma and inspiration. In the case of the latter, it is not difficult to see why. After all, wrestlers in the games are developed with heroic, larger than life traits and enjoy admiration among the gaming audience. Strong characters and confident appearance is what pro wrestling is all about. Video games or precisely fighting games have come up with great characters influenced from pro wrestling like King from Tekken, Mike Haggar from Final Fight and Wolf Hawkfield from Virtua Fighter.

However, it seems like games have taken more inspiration from professional wrestling than the other way around. When we talk about game development, we have to mention online slot games, their design and seamless gameplay. They have been inspired by many subjects, starting from various sports and movie heroes, to pastel art and galaxy themed content like this Starburst slot.

Video gaming and wrestling might not be the luckiest pairing. However, the changed perspective about sports activities and how we follow sports events in the past years might bring some changes to this matter. Taking into consideration the growth of WWE, we can certainly predict how the esports industry and wrestling will develop over the next few years.

The WWE transition to digital

Since 2014 the WWE stock has risen by more than 300% thanks to the growth of the stream and digital media. The dramatic spike followed a decision that many considered risky at that time. They have transferred all their content away from the traditional pay-per-view (PPV) cable TV model and went towards an online subscription service.

The co-founder of WWE said that the transition to digital was a smart move, as the company’s data had shown that online subscriptions and digital consumption were the future of following sporting events. This move has proved to be a winning one, as they now have earned over $1 billion in revenue and count over 1.5 million subscribers on their network. We have to mention the content distribution deals with major networks such as FOX and BT Group PLC.

What does this have to do with esports?

One of the crucial factors for this success is the media rights, i.e. the right of specific broadcasters to show content. This becomes a key source of revenue as streaming providers battle over exclusive content. Media rights as a revenue channel accounted for 14% of the total esports sector in 2017, and by 2022 this is expected to reach 48% of the total revenue. Esports is also attracting major interest for its wide content offer. Last year they had a deal to stream the League of Legends competition, an online video game with a large fanbase and esports players. The finals attracted over 100 million unique views, surpassing the same years’ NFL Super Bowl at 90 million. On the contrary, WWE’s Smackdown on Fox drew in an average of 3 million viewers in November 2019.

These events will become even more demanding as the audience gets bigger. Opportunities for merchandising and sponsorships have already started to attract major brands. We can’t ignore the fact that esports on a global level can attract an even bigger fanbase and sell a lot of tickets. Also, here comes the new potential opportunity for placing bets practically on every event and competition.

The growth of esports shows no signs of slowing down. Analysts predict that the sector’s global audience will hit 450 million viewers this year. With numbers like these, traditional sporting events and broadcasting industries like WWE have to reconsider their strategy and adapt to current circumstances.

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