Chris Derrick on what sports teams should consider before getting into esports

Thanks to Chris Derrick, Chief Executive Officer of ORDER for doing an awesome job in answering all the questions.

Full Transcript available in the Sports Geek Nation Member's Area.

Here's the highlight question from the Sports Geek Nation AMA with Chris Derrick.

Chris Derrick is the Chief Executive Officer of ORDER, an esports team competing at the OPL League of Legends.

Chris has a wide experience working in media, entertainment and sports. He has worked with several tech, entertainment and media companies to build and develop their digital strategies and marketing campaigns to leverage branding.

Chris also worked for Cricket Australia, where he was responsible for the production of its digital broadcast assets on TV, live scores, fantasy and mobile. He eventually became Cricket Australia’s Digital Rights Manager responsible for strategy, execution and management of CA's digital media rights across online, mobile and IPTV.

After several years in the digital department of different organisations, Chris found his way in the Australian Football League to handle its esports projects. This paved the way to Chris getting into the esports industry.

Connect with Chris Derrick on Twitter @iamchrisderrick, LinkedIn and Slack @Chris Derrick

Find out more about ORDER at order.army

Chris Derrick:

@Tod Caflisch the first would be the same points made above but to be considered from a team point of view. How is that team going to add value and in what part of esports do you play?

The second comes down to the team's objectives in esports. Common objectives (in my experience) include commercial/revenue by attaining new assets for monetisation (primarily through sponsorship) our audience growth by reaching and attracting a new audience that the team does not currently reach. There is also the long term objective of equity creation as the esports team and esports in general grows. Any traditional/professional team looking at esports needs to be clear on it's objectives.

Third, you have to be all in. Specifically, you need to resource the esports business properly. Esports teams are businesses the same way as professional sports teams are with operations, logistics, marketing, content, digital, social, high performance, etc etc etc. How realistic is it that your current resources can/will take on these duties for the esports team or are you going to need dedicated resources for the esports team. I think a lot of people get this part wrong.

• What is the best advice you can give to sports executives looking to enter esports
• Were there any from the Order crowdfunding campaign in Aus Esports?
• Do you think we could see this [crowdfunding] happening more often?
• How was the transition from being in a sports organisation like AFL to esports? were there any challenges?

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