Storyboard18 | Why esports and online gaming saw ad dollars influx in 2021

According to a recent EY report, the online gaming industry was the fourth-largest subsector in media and entertainment in 2020, with a CAGR of 27 percent. Image: Shutterstock

Gaming and esports have opened a new door for advertisers, offering high engagements and massive reach. While 2020 saw growth in the industry in terms of users, new apps and platforms, 2021 saw an influx of advertisers in the segment. From tech companies to ecommerce, FMCG and food delivery apps, categories targeting millennials and Gen Z have grown.

“India was a sleeping giant till Covid-19, and now we have established ourselves as a market that cannot be ignored. Stakeholders like the brands, investors, authorities and so on, were just sitting on the fence and observing. But with a market of at least 450 million online gamers, the potential of video games and esports cannot be ignored,” said Lokesh Suji, Director, Esports Federation of India, and Vice President of the Asian Esports Federation (AESF).

According to a recent EY report, the online gaming industry was the fourth-largest subsector in media and entertainment in 2020, with a CAGR of 27 percent. Reports also say that the esports market size in India has quickly scaled to Rs 3 billion in FY2021. The expectation is that it would reach Rs 11 billion by FY25. According to the same EY report, the segment is also expected to generate an economic value of around Rs 100 billion between FY21 and FY25.

“Brand participation in our own platforms have grown by 40 percent over the last year,” said Rajan R. Navani, founder and CEO of digital entertainment and tech firm JetSynthesys.

JetSynthesys, which has a 50 percent founding stake in NODWIN Gaming, also owns 100 percent of cricket simulation games like Real Cricket and Sachin Saga, engaging over 100 million gamers worldwide. JetSynthesys recently acquired Chennai-based Skyesports to form Jet Skyesports Gaming Pvt. Alongside working with ecommerce and FMCG brands, they have also onboarded new entrants in 2021—mostly from the technology sector like AMB Technologies and Western Digital.

Players spending more time gaming get higher engagement

“The average time spent on the gaming and esports platforms was close to 40 minutes a day last year. The number is almost an hour now. The engagements have gone up, so has the viewership of live gaming events. Our YouTube channel Skyesports, for instance, saw 3X growth in viewership for certain tournaments. This is the kind of reach advertisers catering to millennials and Gen Z crowd are looking for,” Navani added.

Similar audience profiles are another reason why brands are looking at the segment, Navani said.

Gaurav Agarwal, the founder of Gamezop, a plug-and-play game centre that apps and websites can use to bring casual gaming to their users, explains why advertising in the segment makes sense for brands and marketers.

“Gaming amounts to interactive engagement and commands higher attention from users. But that’s not the only reason why brands and agencies are growing focus on gaming. Casual gamers are the most diverse group on the internet, allowing for the highest degree of granular targeting,” he said.

According to Agarwal, within the broad gaming universe, brands can utilise inventory on banners, interstitials, videos (pre-rolls, mid-rolls, and rewarded), native units (such as in-game billboards or jerseys), or even sponsor an esports team that has millions of followers.

Agarwal’s Gamezop has also worked with a host of popular brands such as Amazon, Sony LIV, Paytm, Samsung Internet, Goibibo, and Airtel.

Interestingly, Dentsu also recently launched Dentsu Gaming this year—a solution to dedicatedly support brands looking to advertise to three billion gamers worldwide. The move indicates the interest marketers are taking in the segment.

Gamers and brands want variety 

Tarun Gupta, founder at esports platform Ultimate Battle, said they have witnessed an increase of 31 percent in new user engagement in 2021. Similarly, Sunil Yadav, CEO, at fantasy cricket platform PlayerzPot told Storyboard18 that variety in content is also one of the reasons driving growth in the segment.

“Players are also open to exploring gaming content trends like short video, live streaming, new genres of gaming, Gen Z-focused games, and so on. This has pushed the envelope,” he said. Riding on this trend, PlayerzPot is expecting to reach 10M users by the end of FY 2021-22.

With the growth in top lines, the platforms are also attracting international brands and investments, venture capital, and IPOs are opening up for this sector. Specific funds are now being launched for the sector too, with the likes of Eximius Ventures and Kalaari Capital are all adding gaming to their portfolio.

As for international brands, Thailand-based esports company Ampverse recently entered the Indian market by acquiring 7Sea Esports.

Charlie Baillie, CSO and co-founder, Ampverse, said they are planning a multi-million-dollar investment into India to enable the growth of the industry and establish a solid foundation.

“India has one of the biggest economies in the world, and also a huge untapped market for gaming. Our mission is to accelerate the future of the esports industry, and that’s what we’re planning to do with our Indian team at 7Sea. With India expected to have over 900 million active internet users by 2025, a huge chunk of those users will turn into mobile gamers and that’s what organisations are betting on,” Baillie said.

Playing the long-game: Finding and nurturing talent and new users

Association with brands is also helping promote talent and healthy competition in the sector.

Pranav Panpalia, founder, OpraahFx and OP Gaming, that manages close to 30 gamers, says there is no dearth of talent management companies in the segment. Yet, there isn’t any struggle to onboard new clients. “There are talent management firms for the sector that handle gamers based on followings, games, platforms, wins and so on. There are so many of them in each category there is no cut-throat competition amid agencies,” Panpalia said.

Similarly, Abhishek Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of gaming talent management company Trinity Gaming, said that supporting talents and enabling them to monetise has become easier while associating brands like Truke, CellBell, Coca-Cola and others.

“With the help of brands, we aim to bring more diverse talents under the Trinity Gaming banner. We are constantly doing R&D and identifying talents, even penetrating the Tier II and Tier III markets for vernacular content,” Agarwal said.

For brands, the focus is not just on gaming, but also taking gaming and esports to native language markets, which is the new big source for millennial and Gen Z customers.

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.