Reaching the teen and young adult demographic can be tricky as 70 percent of kids stop playing sports by the age of 13. However, one thing those demographics don’t stop playing is video games. So how can you integrate video games into your organization? Start an eSports league.
eSports has grown exponentially in the last decade. Universities are offering scholarships for players to attend their educational institutions, cities are building stadiums dedicated to it and people are literally paying to watch professionals play these games at a high level. Just look at the popularity of Twitch—a gaming live stream platform where people can watch their favorite players play their favorite games. Over 7.7 million people streamed in August 2020 with 1.6 billion hours watched that month alone.
Even major figures in sports and pop culture have invested in eSports. From Michael Jordan to Mark Cuban to Drake—each of them has invested millions into the leagues.
So how can your organization benefit from eSports and reach the teen and young adult demographic? Read on to learn more.
Engage Hard-to-Reach Audiences With eSports
Become a place for more than just the traditional sports and offer programs for people in your community with multiple interests. Engage a multitude of folks who don’t frequent your organization by implementing an eSports program or league. Appealing to that hard-to-reach demographic will help increase revenue and potentially engage a new group for years to come.
Bring in Rental Revenue With eSports Events
A dedicated place for people to participate in an eSports league or program while making new friends and meeting up with current ones will bring in revenue from an overlooked yet growing community. In most major cities, hotels annually rent out ballrooms for gaming conventions where participants can set up their computers and game to their hearts’ content over the course of a weekend.
Most eSports events are tournaments, so renting out your dedicated space for those events is a great opportunity to turn previously unused space into a revenue generator—that doesn’t even include the price of admission and concessions for spectators or registration for participants.
In 2019, eSports’ global annual revenue surpassed $1 billion and will continue trending up for years to come. It’s estimated that it will reach at least $3 billion by 2022.
ACTIVE Is Here to Help
You may want to follow in the footsteps of programs like Gamer Camp hosted by Texas A&M University Athletics. After seeing the growth of the industry, Texas A&M decided to offer Gamer Camp to 10- to 15-year-old kids for the first time this summer and saw a lot of great success—including $35,000 in revenue.
“We did a lot of marketing to get it started,” says Rena Frank, athletic camps coordinator at Texas A&M Athletics. “We utilized athletic events to promote it, as well as Facebook advertising and more to get the word out about the program.”
To handle registrations and many of their marketing efforts, including targeted emails, the camp turned to ACTIVEWorks Camp & Class Manager.
“Our account manager at ACTIVE, Ross, really fast-tracked implementation and was super helpful,” Frank says. And after seeing this year’s success, Texas A&M already decided to expand the program into more sessions next summer and already has 13 campers coming back!
“My advice for other programs wanting to do eSports is to really understand your demographic,” Frank says. “Gamer kids are different, and we focused on providing them a safe place to come and play.”
With online registration and real-time reporting, ACTIVE’s Camp & Class Manager can help you better understand your demographics. The platform can help you expand into a new market easily and will grow with you year after year. ACTIVE also offers world-class digital marketing services to help you reach the right audiences and drive revenue.
ACTIVE’s Camp & Class Manager solution makes these efforts much easier and more effective. The all-in-one solution offers your organization the ability to create professionally branded, eye-catching emails with easy-to-use templates, as well as send them to current and potential members. With Camp & Class Manager’s integrated social media, you will be able to grow your registrations and membership with ease. Talk to a specialist today!
ACTIVENet will be there for you when it comes to your organization’s needs. Whether that means engaging your community, streamlining operations or managing participation, our software is here to help your organization perform at its best.
