UP357 UP does BLAST: The business of esports

Unofficial Partner podcast: Insights from Blast's eSports event in CopenhagenIn this episode Richard and Sean travel to Copenhagen to go behind the scenes at the BLAST Fall Finals, one of the big esports moments of the year, featuring the leading Counter Strike teams including FaZe Clan, Vitality and Cloud9 at the Royal Arena, Copenhagen. We talk to Tom Greene, COO of BLAST, who shared his insights about eSports, the event and esports ecosystem business model, the dynamic between publisher, event holder, team and star players, and the future growth potential of the eSports industry.This episode is sponsored by Turnstile, the leader in the fair market pricing of sponsorships. Are you frustrated by decades of inflated and unrealistic media equivalency valuations?Are you struggling to understand the value of your Intellectual Property, the real value of exposure and the detailed value of benefits in your sponsorship deals? There is a solution. Turnstile was built with a single-minded focus...to help the industry solve the million- dollar question...how much is this sponsorship actually worth? Their approach leverages $billions of dollars’ worth of real-world sponsorship contracts to provide a fair market pricing approach that reflects the true value of sponsorship assets. This approach is trusted by the world’s biggest rights holders, investors and brands because its credible, defensible and accurate. So now you can know the fair market price and transact with confidence. If you would like to understand more visit turnstilegroup.com to contact the team.Episode timeline00:00 Introduction and Sponsorship Message00:56 Live from the Counter Strike Final09:14 Post-Event Discussion with BLAST COO Tom Greene17:38 Understanding the Business Model of eSports25:58 The Role of Streaming in eSports27:47 Exploring the Reach of eSports27:57 Understanding Sponsorship in eSports29:01 The Role of Media Partnerships 34:23 The Evolution of eSports and its Impact on Brands37:44 The Role of Athletes in the eSports Ecosystem41:28 The Intersection of eSports and Traditional Sports42:07 The Influence of Sponsorship in eSports44:09 The Global Reach of eSports48:32 The Role of Storytelling in eSports51:58 The Impact of Long-Term Investment in eSports54:05 The Relationship between eSports and Mainstream Brands55:25 The Future of eSports: A Final ReflectionUnofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.