Fetch TV and the Every Good Game Network partner to offer Australians the first-ever 24/7 channel entirely dedicated to eSports.
As my horse fell with two fences to go so did my interest in the race. It might have been the Grand National – the greatest horse race in the world – but without a bet, it became as satisfying as peeling potatoes.
“Dad, my horse is still in.”
It was my eight-year-old son Jude.
I had put him in charge of keeping track of our selections on this big piece of paper, and he was crossing them off with his crayons as each horse fell. I had forgotten all about him.
“Come on Mon Mome!” Shouted Jude.
“Come on Mon Mone!” I shouted back.
I was done with imaginary potato peeling; the race was back on.
The vast majority of my major sporting memories all have two things in common. I watched them on TV and I had money on the outcome, and it’s for these two reasons that I feel it is imperative for eSports to gain a foothold in television broadcasting.
Fetch TV and EGG Partner For Australia’s First 24/7 eSports Channel
You won’t find a more fervent bunch of gamblers than the Aussies. So it’s excellent news for the future of eSports, and any potential gambling associations, that Fetch TV have inked a deal with the Malaysian-based eSports outfit Every Good Game Network (EGG), to create Australia’s first 24/7 eSports channel.
The channel opened in time to air coverage of the $3m Guaranteed Dota 2 Boston Major Grand Final over the weekend. It was the first Major of the 2016/17 season with 16 teams participating. The first prize of $1m went to Team OG who beat Team Ad Finem. The timing was perfect as OG team member Anathan Pham became the first Australian to win a Valve sponsored event.
The network plans to show live action from a broad array of eSports game including League of Legends, Call of Duty: Black Ops and StarCraft II. Last season’s League of Legends World Championships attracted the eyeballs of 36 million fans when it streamed online.
There is a market for this burgeoning business and it’s not only Australia making waves. In October, Sky TV and ITV partnered to launch GINX TV, the UK’s first 24/7 channel entirely dedicated to eSports.
I know I left you hanging earlier.
Back to the race.
Mon Mone won.
It was the second greatest sporting moment in my life. I was throwing my son in the air. He was shouting and screaming. And I didn’t even know what the odds were. I opened my laptop up and couldn’t believe it.
100/1
We had won a grand.
Later that day to celebrate I took my boy to Toys R Us to buy £200 worth of toys. On the way, he asked if we could go to the fair instead to play on the cuddly toy grab machines.
So here I am ploughing pound coin after pound coin into these machines. Eventually, I reach £50 and tell Jude that we have to stop. I can’t carry any more of these cuddly toys.
“Jude, don’t tell your Mum how much we spent on the machines, ok?”
“Ok.”
We get home, and he runs to his Mum, with cuddly toys falling over the floor.
“Wow,” she said.
“You do not want to know how much money I spent winning these,” he replied.
