eSports is not a sport

According to the president of ESPN, eSports is not a sport, and there are no plans to expand the network’s coverage of events like Dota 2 The International.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with ESPN, it is an American television sports network that covers your conventional sporting events – football, basketball, etc. As of August 2013, ESPN was available to just under 100 million American households, and was operating in more than 200 countries.

In a recent interview, ESPN’s president John Skipper said whether or not eSports continues to grow in popularity, it will not be supported by the network.

“It’s not a sport. It’s a competition. Chess is a competition. Checkers is a competition. Mostly, I’m interested in doing real sports,” he said.

Before the chess and checkers players explode with rage, let’s deal with the eSports issue first briefly.

The recent Dota 2 The International saw the winning team – NewBee – take home over R50 million.
Research from SuperData shows that 71 million people from across the globe tuned in to watch eSports during 2013.
Amazon recently bought Twitch, the popular video game streaming site, for over R10 billion.

So, eSports is popular. But is it a sport?

Honestly, I don’t think it matters what you call it. As long as you enjoy doing it and is it not negatively affecting you or those around you, then go for it – sport or not.

The real question is – is ESPN missing out on a growing market here? Let us know what you think in the comments and forum.