E-sporters disrupt the ball game
Remember backyard cricket or football. It’s a fantasy now to a generation raised in smaller house lots and more attuned to a games controller than a wrong’un.
So it’s only natural that E-sports are taking off globally – so much so that they’re under consideration for inclusion in the 2024 Paris Olympics as an official sport.
That’s right – gamers are in the running for Olympic gold. You can bet they’ll be scheduled late in the program!
The millennial love for E-sports is already having an impact and disrupting some of the existing and seemingly invulnerable sporting franchises. Hence the Olympic interest in including them.
It’s also the reason the QUT Real World Futures conference _ Disruptive Influences – And What To Do With Them _ has included an E-sports section in this year’s program.
The section will be led by a QUT alumnus, Nick Vanzetti, managing director of one of the big Australian operators, ESL and will feature the QUT E-sports club.
This will be just one of the surprise offerings at the conference where earlybird tickets are now on sale. But it is an important illustration of our theme of how to create opportunity from disruption.
Business Insider analysis describes the win-win that could come from making E-sports an Olympic event.
The attractions, according to Business Insider, include:
. It could help boost millennial viewership which dropped dramatically at the Rio Games and, in turn, increase the value of Olympic programming;
. It could pave the way to make E-sports a legitimate, mainstream sport with the governance associated with other international sports.
The Olympics has already diversified its program to make it more attractive to sports popular with younger audiences, recently adding three-on-three basketball and freestyle BMX.
The QUT conference will also cover what’s happening with digital disruption of health, money, shopping, media, work, war and politics – all in one day.
You will hear from Suncorp's Pip Marlow, Telstra's Dr Mary Foley, The Australian's Paul Kelly and two of the world'd leading robotics experts, Professors Peter Corke and Ron Arkin as well as seeing the wave of disruption hovering over sport.
Earlybird registrations for $295 a seat or $1899 a table are open now.