NBA makes esports entry with new NBA 2K League
NEW YORK — On the night LeBron James began the second round of the playoffs, a computerized Cavalier tormented teams the way the real Cleveland superstar does.
The NBA is betting there are enough fans for both versions.
The league is staging the opening tournament this week of its NBA 2K League, hoping to cash in on the combination of the global popularity of basketball and the burgeoning business of esports.
Television ratings have soared in recent years to watch James, the rise of the Warriors, and a thrilling era of high-flying dunkers and long-range snipers. But will fans really race to their computers to watch other people sitting around playing video games?
“I think the esports universe is answering that question for us,” NBA 2K League managing director Brendan Donohue said. “People are completely 100 percent engaged with watching others play games. I think Twitch is walking proof of that, and all the success these other games have had. The esports space has doubled in size the last three years and every prediction is it’s going to double in size the next three years, so I think we’re almost beyond that question a little bit.”
So do NBA commissioner Adam Silver and many of his owners. Donohue said the league hoped to get eight to 12 teams for its inaugural season and instead got 17, with enough interest remaining that he expects rapid expansion.
Some owners of NBA clubs were already invested in popular esports such as Overwatch and League of Legends and had seen their arenas host well-attended competitions even before the league created the first official esports league operated by a U.S. professional sports league.
“Esports are big and getting bigger. 2K is a way to connect not only with gamers, but gamer fans and to turn both into NBA and Mavs fans and vice versa,” Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wrote in an email. “We think we can take traditional NBA fans, 2K fans and strengthen the bond they have to the NBA.”
Each of the major sports leagues is looking to claim its share of what Newzoo, the market research firm, reports will be a $1 billion industry by 2019.
The opening day of the Tipoff tournament had some excitement, highlighted by two 40-point performances by Cavs Legion GC’s Brandon Caicedo, who plays under the handle Hood.
But the league was already encouraged by the response even before the games began.
When Cuban’s team used the No. 1 pick on Artreyo Boyd (Dimez) in the draft, Donohue said 450,000 watched on Twitch, the streaming service popular with video-game players that will feature NBA2K action. More than 40 percent of that audience was from outside the U.S., providing the international eyeballs that have been so crucial to the NBA.
Some of the players drafted that day bring their own individual fan bases that have watched streams of their games in other competitions, and even people who don’t know the competitors may know enough about basketball to watch anyway.
Kings Guard Gaming’s Mitchell Franklin, the No. 4 overall pick whose gamer handle is Mootyy, said that’s what separates NBA 2K from Overwatch League and Dota 2, which draw huge esports audiences.
“With 2K, it’s very similar to basketball,” he said. “It’s not like any unique twists or turns to it, so the average basketball fan, anyone and their mother that’s ever picked up a basketball can literally flip it on and really see and understand what’s happening.”