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In the last decades, the market for digital games has grown to nearly $100 billion. During this growth, a special gaming segment and community formed surrounding the direct competitive aspect of games: eSports. The core of eSports is similar to traditional types of sport. Players train to become better, clubs are established, tournaments are organized and fans enjoy watching their game being played on the highest level of performance. With viewers and prize money in the millions, eSports have grown into an economically significant media sport ecosystem and a marketing landscape that started to attract non-endemic companies as advertisers and sponsors. This book analyzes the components of the eSports ecosystem as well as their interactions with each other. Furthermore, the attitude of eSports fans towards engagements of non-endemic companies is researched by using a real life case study of ESL and Wüstenrot.

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Table of Content
List of Abbreviations
Lists of Images and Tables
1 Introduction
1.1 Problem Statement
1.2 Disambiguation
2 The eSports Market
2.1 Historical Development
2.2 ESports Disciplines
2.2.1 Hardware Systems
2.2.2 Genres and Games
2.3 Key Components of the eSports Ecosystem
2.3.1 Consumers: The eSports Fans
2.3.2 Players
2.3.3 Teams: eSports Clubs
2.3.4 Leagues and Tournaments
2.3.5 Events
2.3.6 Media Channels
2.3.7 Publishers
2.3.8 Brands
2.3.9 Associations
2.4 Risk Factors
2.4.1 Corruption
2.4.2 Virtual Violence
2.5 Sponsoring in Western eSports
2.5.1 Sponsoring Properties and Activities
2.5.2 Sponsor Composition
2.5.3 The Attractiveness of the Target Group
2.6 Consolidation and Future Outlook
2.6.1 Overall Market Size and Growth
2.6.2 Magic Triangle of Sports and the Flow of Money
2.6.3 New Technologies
2.6.4 Legal and Political Aspects and the Relation to Trad. Sports
3 Empirical Research on 3rd and 4th Degree Sponsoring
3.1 Previous Research on eSports
3.2 Research Problem Definition and Objectives
3.3 The Case Study
3.4 Theoretical Model, Research Design and Methods
3.5 Data Collection
3.5.1 Field Study
3.5.2 Online Survey
3.6 Data Analysis
3.6.1 Socio-Demographics
3.6.2 Verification of the Required Conditions
3.6.3 Attitude towards Sports Sponsoring
3.6.4 Awareness at Event
3.6.5 Attitude and Perception
3.6.6 Image Transfer Potential
3.6.7 Created Brand Connection with eSports
3.6.8 International Results
3.7 Summarization and Implications
3.8 Limitations and Future Research
4 Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendixes

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Living in a household with up-to-date computer equipment, Julian Ströh grew up with a strong fascination for digital games and fell in love with Warcraft III and eSports as a teenager. To work in a business environment he feels passionate about, he uses his natural enthusiasm for and knowledge about games to pursue his professional marketing career in the gaming industry.

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