ESPN Wants To Be The Worldwide Leader In eSports

ESPN is a $50 billion a year enterprise, but with so many channels to fill, it’s sometimes stretched the definition of the word “sports.” Arguably, it’s about to stretch it even further, now that it’s delving into eSports.

For those unfamiliar, eSports is basically competitive video-game playing, usually centered around one game, like StarCraft II or League of Legends. It may sound odd at first, but game streaming is becoming a bigger and bigger piece of gaming culture, and eSports is at the center of that.

After a recent event that was essentially Blizzard renting out ESPN to broadcast a Heroes of the Storm match, and confusing lots of viewers in the process, it appears the Worldwide Leader is going all in on eSports. They’re looking for an editor to cover the eSports scene, in text for now, and don’t get too excited: It’s a nights, weekends, and holiday type of gig.

It was perhaps an inevitable decision: As eSports have grown, and millennials show less and less interest in traditional sports, ESPN will go where the advertiser-desired demographics are, and it’s not like ESPN doesn’t cover oddball sports already. Or maybe they’re just trying to ensure Colin Cowherd doesn’t come back. Either way, we’ll be curious to see what happens in this arena.

(via Kotaku)

×