Calvinayre’s Rebecca Liggero interviewed Khaled Naim of Stark Esports explained to Calvinayre’s Rebecca Liggero the lessons that eSports can draw from different football clubs.
As the popularity of eSports continues to spread worldwide, Khaled Naim of Stark eSports believes that it is time to create “FIFA-like” body, which will promote checks and balances within the industry.
Drawing the lessons from football clubs, Naim told Calvinayre.com that establishing associations is key to professionalize the whole eSports industry since it will bring the much needed structure and transparency to the gaming scene.
Naim pointed out that the present eSports industry yet to create a safety network for all the stakeholders, unlike in football where it has FIFA, which acts as a governing body.
“Associations are missing. And FIFA is a good association maybe for football but in eSports we don’t have that. In Asia, there’s maybe KESPA (Kore eSports Association) but in Europe or even in the western countries, there’s no association,” Naim said.
The danger of not having associations, according to Naim, is that players – mostly young people – are subject to abuses and exploitation.
“We are talking about young people, right? These young people need to be protected, so who does that? The parents? The parents can’t help them, because they’re signing contracts… career contracts are earning real money. So they have even to pay taxes and they have no clue, because they are too young,” he explained.
As for the possible entry of football in the world of eSports, Naim believes that it bodes well for the gaming industry since football will be able to lend its brand in promoting gaming via the followers of the different football clubs on different social media.
He said that there are at least six or seven clubs that want to enter eSports this year, predicting that their entry in the industry will happen in the next six months.
“FIFA is now more or less a communication tool, and I think was the best thing they could do with that. But I think also that there are two league of legends. There are so many players and they actually play this games and follow sports as well. So this offers you a new target audience. These people are active on social media as well. I think social media is a very important part for football clubs so that’s actually why brands of football club should enter e-sports,” he said.
Betting – like football – will also become a huge part in the eSports scene, according to Naim, since betting companies outside of eSports just found out that eSports is a very attractive market, such as US-based betting company Unikrn.
“They want to spend money, and they want to bet on those teams as well. I’m a big fan of one company based in America, is Unikrn. Unikrn is a betting company under the full purpose on eSports, and famous people like Ashton Kutcher, who’s a great actor, invested into this company, and Mark Cuban, the owner of Dallas Mavericks invested into this company as well. So I think this will be a big part, and betting will be a huge part of eSports as well,” he said.
