Great indoors: eSports gains foothold in Australia

SYDNEY: Outdoor sport is almost like a religion in Australia, with kids packing into cars each weekend bound for organised chaos at parks and ovals, while millions diligently follow rugby, football and cricket on TV or at stadiums.

The rituals help explain why eSports has been slow to catch on Down Under.

But the Aussie passion for competition has gaming pioneers convinced that eSports has a future in the country -- even if the profile so far remains low.

“There is still a general unawareness with what actually eSports is, so there is an education process that a lot of tournament organisers, or teams and clubs, are working through,” GFinity Australia chief executive Dominic Remond told AFP.

The firm ran their maiden eSports Elite Series in June and July, with teams from major cities in Australia playing Counter Strike Global Offensive, Street Fighter V and Rocket League.

The event was held at Sydney’s first eSports stadium -- which doubles as a TV show set -- with teams stationed above giant gaming screens and commentators positioned in front of cameras below.

It drew large crowds of cheering supporters and more than 4.5 million viewers online over the seven weeks of competition, with a live broadcast on streaming platform Twitch.

“We’re finding the more people understand it, the more they embrace it,” Remond added.

ESports are not as big in Australia as in China or South Korea, where elite players share a similar fame to mainstream sports stars, earning millions of sponsorship dollars.

Competitive gaming made its debut as a demonstration sport at last month’s Asian Games in Jakarta, a move which eSports organisers hope will help it gain Olympic acceptance.

But Australia’s eSports fan base has more than doubled over the past two years, according to data from Nielsen Sports and Entertainment, with the majority aged 18-34 -- a key demographic for many businesses.

Sports market research company Gemba put Australia’s number of eSports “fanatics”, or highly engaged fans, at 1.8 million.

That is big business, with national sporting leagues and even governments scrambling to grasp the global multi-billion dollar implications.