Q&A: Esports & Gaming, Testing tools & TV in Iso

Transcriptions done by robots in Descript app (they are getting better but not yet perfect)

This one came from Steve Pastorino former podcast guest. It was one of the early zoom calls we had a, it was one of my thoughts on sports, leaping into gaming and esports, with the current situation we are currently in. I think it's a, I think I did hear it on another podcast. I guess it's current crisis is the accelerating what potentially was going to happen anyway. So I think that's what we're seeing. we're seeing sports that had already made inroads into the sports gaming space that have, simulation supports already. so motor sport, with racing, we're seeing NASCAR formula one doing a lot of things in the sports space. Supercars here in Australia. I think they're making some really big inroads in the gaming and esports space. in that they've got a, they've got a sport that looks exactly like their, their normal product. So I think it's an easy transition. then you've got the other sports that have a mass sports simulator, so the NBA2K, FIFA, and, and the like, You know, they've already been sitting up, legs, discuss it with Brendan Donahue at NBA2K and discussed it with a couple of the teams in the NBA2K , and we've seen FIFA do the same. So I think it's just accelerated that. And then I think what we've also seen is the acceleration of just entering the gaming markets. So, more athletes that are playing games that aren't related to their, to their sport and sports starting to do things that they probably wouldn't have done. Three months ago, which would have been, you know, having a player play a call of duty or fortnight on, on a club channel. so I think there's some real good lessons to be learned. There'll be some mistakes, but I think we're in a period where we're allowing them and, we're allowing up mistakes and they're allowed to be had because we're in this strange time. so I think it is good. I think the interesting thing is it's not going to completely convert every single fan. It's not gonna match the numbers of. the real thing. but it is a way, it is another content piece, another way to engage fans. So, I think that's the main thing. I think the other thing is, is esports going into traditional broadcast was the other side of the equation. We looked at with things like Riot Games, League of Legends, being shown on ESPN. and some of the missteps that were made there, where there was not ad blocks put in, for the ESPN broadcast. and then the other thing of how do you talk to a different audience and sort of raise the, raise the position if you're going to talk to a new audience. and this case it's a pro sport audience talking about gaming or. Even just new fans to the game. is there opportunity for alternate broadcasts? which is what I was tackling and planted, keep tackling with Gravitas, sort of doing the Gravitas Cast and doing an alternate cast to try to explain to people what, what this sport, this esport is. So I think there's going to be a lot of. A lot of lessons and learnings out of this period as sports sort of dive into the world of gaming, but also understand that esports, which is the competitive nature and the competitive outcome and gaming are different. So if you're just watching someone play a game, that would be gaming. And that is a very big market because there's a lot of people who are game. And then esports is the very, very top. So making something watchable and competitive is what is really the key, a key parts of, and the key part of success for esports. Yeah. So thanks for that question, Steve.  And thank you very much for attending. multiple #sportsbiz zoom calls.