Having an organised fan base is as important as winning a competition for an esports team. And in times of turmoil, more important than that. Lets talk about some of the major benefits an engaged fan base can yield to the team.
Brands like HP, Intel, Coca-Cola etc are offering sponsorship, not because they love EGames but, because they see esport sponsorships as a way to engage and influence the fanbase of leading teams which in turn helps them to sell their products and services. Sponsors closely monitor fan engagement KPI's before, during, and after the collaboration to increase the predictability of Return-On-Ads-Spent (ROAS). And because sponsorships account for 74% revenue (Source: Newzoo worldwide survey) of the esport teams, having an engaged fanbase is not a good thing to have, but a necessity.
As we all know, sponsorships aren't and can never be a stable source of revenue for esports teams. No team would want to put all their eggs, in our context revenue sources, in one unreliable basket. Another most accessible source of revenue for an esport team is fan transactions. Teams can easily sell and upsell exclusive content, virtual assets and event tickets to a fanbase if it is highly engaged. Let's consider Fnatic's 50Million+ fan base; Even if only 5% of it is engaged and out of which 1% ends up buying a 3$ virtual asset, how much money will they make?
A significant percentage of the fans of any esports teams are skill based fans. They follow a team to observe & enhance their skills to become more competitive. Some of the fans end up joining leading teams and compete on global arena. If an esport team manages to keep the fanbase engaged by fulfilling all the expectations, they end up creating a pool of talent they can rely on for future needs.
What if you win the world but noone's there who truly cares for it? What motivates a team to constantly enhance their skillsets? An engaged fan base gives teams a reason to wake up daily and work hard to push the name of their clan higher.
From from strategy perspective, a stable and highly engaged fan base is a substantial competitive advantage for esport teams. This advantage translates into more profit, stable revenue streams, culture of passion and victory and moreover the feeling of pride! In order to do that, teams need to understand the art and management of tapping on the deeper expectation an esport fan has, at scale.
