ESPO - Invest in the Future of Sports

25 July 2019

Watch Time 2:42

History of video games beginning in the 1970’s to the 2000’s, really gain cultural relevance with Atari’s introduction of the home gaming system in the 1970’s.

Video Transcript

INTERVIEWER: Do you think that video games are gonna be here to stay or they’re just a fad that’s gonna go away?

BOY: They’ll be here to stay.

VanEck – Invest in the future of sports

1970s – Atari, Inc. released the first commercially successful video game, Pong, the original arcade version of which sold 35,000 cabinets.

ED LOPEZ: History of video games beginning in the 1970’s to the 2000’s, really gain cultural relevance with Atari’s introduction of the home gaming system in the 1970’s.

1977 – Home video game console

LOPEZ: In the Golden Age of arcade games, we saw that in the late '70s and 1980’s with games like Pacman and Space Invaders…

1980s – By 1982, the arcade video game industry was worth $8 billion.

LOPEZ: You saw Nintendo with their Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), launch their video game system in 1985 and that really opened up the platform for third-party game developers and in the '90s video games migrated to PC’s and that became another platform for local area network parties, LAN parties, with folks playing video games.

1990 – 2000s
With technological advances, gaming became more social and paved the way to the foundation of eSports.

LOPEZ: Then, into the 2000’s with better technology and mobile phones, people were able to start playing games on their mobile phones.

LOPEZ: Today, the rise of eSports, it’s the future of sports and multiplayer competitive gaming where you have large audiences, millions of people watching and participating in video games.

LOPEZ: The eSports industry has averaged growth of 40% per year over the last three years.

eSports – Average 40% growth in the last 3 years

380 million – Global eSports audience expected to reach 380 million in 2018, from 205 million in 2014.

LOPEZ: A global industry with worldwide revenues, demographics skews young, younger than traditional sports. At an average age under 30, this is an active, engaged audience with the potential to support the industry long time.

Average age of eSports enthusiast vs U.S. Sports Fan
28 years old:
PGA - 64
MLB - 57
NFL - 50
NHL - 49
NBA - 42
eSports – 28

LOPEZ: That could provide long term support for video game publishers and the industry as a whole. And there is a social interaction which you don’t get with traditional sports, where spectators can interact with players as they are playing the game.

LOPEZ: The size of the video game market today by revenues is approximately $140 billion.

140 billion| the video game market today is $140 billion.

LOPEZ: That’s the projected revenue by 2018 and it’s projected to grow to $180 billion by 2021.

180 billion | the video game market is projected to be $180 billion by 2021.

LOPEZ: At VanEck we are really focused on providing access to those companies that are really benefiting from the industry and impacting the industry in a meaningful way. The potential opportunity for investors considering investing in video games and in eSports is really driven by high revenue potential, young demographic, the long-term potential of this industry to disrupt the media and entertainment industry.

High revenue potential
Young demographic
Long term potential to disrupt the media and entertainment industry

LOPEZ: I’m Ed Lopez, Head of ETF Product at VanEck.

VanEck | Invest in The Future Of Sports – VanEck Video Gaming and eSports UCITS ETF (Ticker: ESPO)

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