The Australian Football League governing body has given the green light for the league and its representatives to bury their head deep into the bosom of esports.
It won’t be long before our children think of physical sports as being old and arthritic. Our technology experts are like the explorers of old, searching for the fountain of youth. Very soon, treadmills will go the way of the Dodo, as we will be able to change our cellular structure at the touch of a button.
Throwing a ball and catching it?
Give me a break.
The Australian Football League (AFL), like so many sporting leagues around the globe, are waking up to this fact. I don’t believe our sporting monoliths are being proactive. They must be staring at a graph that shows an interest in their sport in decline.
Just like online poker sites have to enter new markets, such as sports betting, and casino. So our bastions of sporting excellence have to do likewise, and it seems that the world of electronic sports is where their all-seeing eye is currently fixated.
The latest scattering of eraser crumbs on this issue comes from Down Under where The Sydney Morning Herald revealed that the Australian Football League’s (AFL) governing body had given the green light for the league, and the teams that breathe life into it to enter the esports market.
The AFL governing body believes they are the best men and women for the job because they have the sporting governance, the experience of policing integrity issues, and they know how to run a successful sporting event.
Adelaide Crows Add eSports Team to the Nest; Great Western Sydney Are Next
The Adelaide Crows saw this one coming.
In May of this year, the AFL outfit, spent in the region of six figures to acquire Legacy, an esports outfit that is one of the top League of Legends (LOL) teams operating in the Oceanic Pro League (OPL), which launched in 2015.
The report in the Herald reveals that Great Western Sydney (GWS) may be next, and when that happens, be sure that the rest of the tree limbs on this particular trunk will reach out and grab a spot in the market.
The AFL wants to use the 53,000 capacity Etihad Stadium in Melbourne for its games.
And the fans will come.
Intel Extreme Masters a Success; McDonalds Involved
In May, SK Gaming beat OpTic Gaming in the final of the Intel Extreme Masters Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) competition held in Sydney, and it created over 1.9 million hours of viewership.
McDonald’s, the fast-food giant who feel compelled to tell us that they use ‘real’ chicken in their chicken nuggets (thanks for that), will sponsor two Starcraft II World Championship Series (WCS) events in Sydney, in August.
Great.
Our teenagers are going to be stuck on their computers for 12 hours a day eating Happy Meals.
In a sign of the times, McDonald’s recently pulled out of their Olympic deal, three years early. It’s believed that deal was worth $100m every-four-years for the burger joint.
The Starcraft WCS is visiting Australia for the first time in five years thanks to the combined efforts of Blizzard, ESL and You Know Media.
Gambling and eSports
What does this mean for the Australian gambling industry?
It means that you can serve time in Alcatraz for playing online poker, but you can have a bet on the outcome of a couple of kids playing a Let’s Kill The Terrorist video game.
The Northern Territory Racing Commission, which is a betting regulator in the North of Australia, does state that esports is a sport that bookmakers can offer lines on, as long as those esports are in the following list:
• Call of Duty
• Counter Strike
• Defense of the Ancients (DOTA)
• FIFA Interactive World Cup
• FIFA Ultimate Team Championship Series
• Hearthstone
• Heroes of the Storm
• League of Legends Championship
• Overwatch
• Rocket League
• Smite
• StarCraft
• Street Fighter Series
• Vainglory
• World of Tanks
Throwing a ball and catching it?
Give me a break.
