Fantasy fights and sham shoot-ups lure investors to E-sports stocks – CNBC

Fans cheered as players lined up on opposing computer keyboards ready to wage virtual war, while in the background coaches prowled around in the manner of soccer’s Jose Mourinho. Over the road, fans huddled outside the Wembley Hilton hotel for autographs of their favourite players.

E-sports is a generic term for events ranging from virtual warfare games to computer-simulated soccer matches, often played for big prize money.

Market research firm Superdata said the global E-sports audience stood at 134 million viewers and was growing, while organisers said 6,000 turned up each day to attend the four-day League of Legends tournament that ended on Sunday, with some paying nearly 30 pounds for a ticket.

Analysts and executives said this offered an array of lucrative opportunities, although it was still early days.

The League of Legends event is run by Riot Games, a company in which Chinese online entertainment and media group Tencent Holdings owns a majority stake.

Whalen Rozelle, director of E-sports at Riot Games, said that while League of Legends was not yet profitable, the company was confident it would be.

“I absolutely foresee a day when the E-sports industry will be incredibly profitable. It will just take time,” he said, speaking on the tournament sidelines.