You might not have read it on the sports pages but the finals take place tonight of Ireland’s inaugural esports football tournament. Over the past week, gamers representing Shamrock Rovers, Dundalk, Crusaders and Linfield have taken on teams from England, Scotland and Wales as part of the Celtic eSports League, in an attempt to score from a multimillion-euro industry.
While Premier League teams have dabbled in esports, in which video gaming is elevated to a spectator sport, a regional football league is a first, according to the organisers.
“It’s certainly a first for League of Ireland clubs,” said Mark Lynch, a Shamrock Rovers director. “For us, there’s zero set-up or development, so we gave our name to a player to represent us in the tournament. Our fans can participate as spectators.”
This week’s community cup was streamed live on Twitch, a platform described as YouTube for gamers. Competitors wore club strips and played the Xbox One version of Fifa 17, which has the licence for Irish clubs.
“We wanted to hold a tournament, as you would do in traditional football, over a set time using fixtures,” said Celtic eSports co-founder Geoff Wilson, a former commercial director for Northern Ireland’s Irish Football Association.
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“Sportego, my business, talks to clubs about analysing fan activity, building engagement with apps. From our conversation with clubs, esports kept coming up,” added co-founder Trevor Keane, author of the 2010 book Gaffers: 50 Years of Irish Football Managers.
Wilson and Keane trawled UK tournaments to find skilled gamers to represent the clubs. Rohan Ricketts, a 33-year-old retired footballer who played for Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Shamrock Rovers, represents Wolverhampton Wanderers. Jordan Geary, 25, winner of Microsoft’s Fifa 16 world championship in Seattle this year, plays for Belfast’s Linfield FC.
As the digital footballer for the Belfast team Crusaders, Nathan Dodds, 26, said his role had responsibilities. “When you’re putting on the team shirt, you need to present yourself in a positive light. There’s a lot more responsibility now I’m an online ambassador for Crusaders.”
Newzoo, a data analytics agency, values the esports industry at $463m in 2016 and estimates it will surpass $1bn by 2019. With an estimated global audience of 292m, esports represent an enticing proposition for advertisers and sponsors.
In countries such as South Korea, esports can fill stadiums. “We don’t have the geographic boundaries we used to have, so the pace of growth in Europe is significant,” said Ferdi Roberts, who is holding an esports tournament in Dublin's Convention Centre, with a €10,000 prize pot for the winning team, as part of GamerCon next March. “Large-scale media companies are cottoning on to it. People like ESPN now recognise it.”
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Although most esports involve strategy or shooter games, such as Call of Duty or League of Legends, traditional sports are also seeing opportunities. Manchester City and West Ham United signed their own esports players this year.
Playing in the Celtic eSports League could be a stepping stone to the first division for pro gamers, said Dodds. “There is the hope of transferring to a bigger club, but there’s also the hope of sponsors and investors putting money into the league, so you can stay with the clubs . . . rather than jump ship.”
Wilson and Keane described this week’s community cup as a trial run for a wider tournament in January. “The aim is to do a five-city tour during 2017: Dublin and Belfast, Edinburgh, London and Birmingham,” said Keane.
The board of Shamrock Rovers is keeping a close eye on developments. “If this moves as it has in other markets . . . it will attract sponsors,” said Lynch. “It can only build our digital footprint and expand awareness of our brand.”