Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Fluzo.tv (Fluzo.Tv e-Sports Platform: Watch, Train Win)

Teaser

Electronic Sports (also known as e-Sports or competitive gaming) is a term for organized video game competitions, especially between professionals. e-Sports are the new Massive Digital Phenomenon of our era. Started in 1997, they have exploded in the last 3 years. More than...

Summary

Electronic Sports (also known as e-Sports or competitive gaming) is a term for organized video game competitions, especially between professionals. e-Sports are the new Massive Digital Phenomenon of our era. Started in 1997, they have exploded in the last 3 years. More than 188 Million people watched e-Sports in 2015 (Jan-Oct), generating a market above $748 Million that will reach $1.9B by 2018E. As a new and young industry, lots of opportunities are arising, not only in the field of e-Sports, but also in collateral markets.

E-Sports is something that we have not seen before. In many ways competitive gaming seems, at least at first glance, to resemble traditional sports. But to think that a new phenomenon like e-Sports can be described in terms of the old is to misunderstand it entirely. The intersection of technology, fandom and interactive entertainment is presenting us with new ways of sharing experiences on a global scale. And with 188 million e- Sports enthusiasts worldwide, this is no longer a niche activity, but a shift in the way people consumes games and content and practices sports. As a new sport with its own conditions, there are several global challenges we need to address, just like other sports. Following the “European Commission White Paper on Sports” there are global challenges to face in the e-sports: new laws are required for this new sport; studies are needed to check its influence in culture, learning, education (it is a new phenomenon we can not ignore an needs to be studied). As a regular sport, e-sports are suffering the same problems like in other environment: racism, doping... all these problems and questions are being solved in a private way right, now. We have ahead a new dimension in sports and EU must be prepared to face this at different levels.

In terms of business applied in the field, a revolution is needed. Pay per view TV operators’ platforms for broadcasting of traditional sports (mostly football in Europe) are now based on the standard TV/Media rights model: generation of income via users subscriptions and advertising, while sharing part of this income with stakeholders (teams, leagues, etc.). Current e-Sports streaming platforms over Internet do not follow this business model, only generating income but not sharing it with particular stakeholders of the field (mainly developers and teams), causing the industry to struggle in the future. Fluzo.Tv proposal is to adapt this Media Rights model in the appropriate way to the particularities of this young industry based on internet and streaming, creating this way a sustainable lifecycle for the sector, while integrating in a single platform more income sources (training of professional gamers and betting systems), thanks to the boundaries of a technological and interactive platform.

Work performed

Fluzo.Tv started with the idea of professionalizing the young an emerging e-Sports industry, by applying a traditional business model of current sports (based on TV rights) onto a single streaming platform, to make it different from current e-Sports sites, creating an ecosystem for all the stakeholders (developers, teams, leagues and events) and by adding key differential technology elements such as training to professionals and betting among others. After six months of intense research in the field with key stakeholders on each different area involving e-Sports, we have realized that the final objective of Fluzo.Tv cannot be achieved on one single platform or developing one single project due to its legal and technical implications and due to its ambitious vision. So, what started as a single platform to create a new business model in the industry has evolved into 3 different business units inside the e-Sports division of the company that complement each other.

- “La eLiga”, a proprietary e-Sports league where we are bringing the business model applied in professional football leagues, thanks to partnerships with some of the most important football leagues in Europe, backed up by two different structures: Fluzo.Tv serving as the technological platform to manage this business model in the proper way (due to the technical nature of the e-Sports industry), and e-Sports Mirror, the media unit to bring on board the necessary stakeholders.
- Fluzo.TV (www.fluzo.tv) remains as the technological platform and the technical value of our proposition, with the technology serving as the vehicle to implement this new business model in the correct way, developing proprietary streaming technology and managing other aspects like online training and betting systems. The platform is now open in Beta mode and a future API will be developed so other leagues can benefit from our technology
- e-Sports Mirror (www.esportsmirror.com) acts as the media & content platform to quickly gain attraction of users and put in value the other two units of our vision, serving as a communication channel for our own league and technology, more focused on media aspects and content generation.

e-Sports Mirror has been created specifically with the purpose of quickly bringing stakeholders to our vision and thanks to it we have achieved our first agreements with national e-Sports teams and started negotiations with sponsors for our league. Fluzo.Tv is currently under beta phase, with clear technological roadmap ahead and needed features for our service already in place. As for La eLiga, it will require still some time while Fluzo Studios close deals with different football leagues, the business key of our vision for e-Sports, aiming to fulfill our vision of professional e-Sports in 2 years time.

This SME Instrument has allowed Fluzo Studios the necessary means to understand and research in the complicated area of IP right for streaming, the opportunity of gain time and this way clarify our vision, passing from the initial idea of Fluzo.Tv to the current structure created for e-Sports in the company, where Fluzo.Tv remains the technological proposal, and also allowed us to continue our technical and business development, while being able to assist to different events of the sector, like the European eSports Conference, Gamergy and GamesCon to start putting in value our concept and technology with real stakeholders.

Final results

\"In the past ten years, how consumers “consume” content has drastically changed. People not only enjoy watching each other instead of professionally created content but they have the increasing desire to create, share and ultimately be part of the experience. The explosive growth of e-Sports and the success of sharing game video content illustrates this more than anything else. Competitive gaming is a spectacular phenomenon that is changing game publishing. Valued at $748 million, most of the worldwide revenues today come from advertisers and corporate sponsors. But e-Sports also offers publishers an opportunity to expand the touch points around their games and give fans news way to engage with their favorite characters and enter into a deeper experience.

The eSports enthusiast is extremely valuable for big brands, digital media providers & hardware manufacturers alike. Participants & viewers are more likely than the total population to have a Netflix or Spotify subscription, to have a high income, a full-time job and to shop more frequently. This target group is also much more likely than other gamers to spend big on the latest hardware devices including gaming peripherals. While top players can earn millions in prizes, only 40% of professional players make a living off of gaming. Since prize pools only go to a small portion of teams, most players earn a modest salary ranging from $12,000 to $40,000 a year. Players are required to practice eight hours a day, but can drill up to 16 hours a day before a major event. Low salaries contribute to a high burnout rate, as many players quit to pursue other careers.

The growth of the market is unstoppable, but we may be in front of a clear example of \"\"dead by success\"\". The e-Sports industry needs to get professionalized in many terms. After 9 months of previous research and additional 6 months thank to EU SME, Fluzo Studios has taken a step ahead and entered in the eSports with it a new strategy, based on 3 main pillar, being Fluzo.Tv the technical support for this vision, a SaaS streaming platform. The main implications of this vision are:
- B2B model for advertising, with an innovative BM sharing % of income with developers, teams & leagues, in order to ensure longevity of all stakeholders taking part in the eSports lifecycle
- Training for players to become pro-gamers and make a professional career, helping generate job position
- Generation of Big Data to give useful info to all stakeholders of industry.

Our business model & platforms professionalizes the industry, ensuring a sustainable industry and the existence of stakeholders:
- Publishers / developers maximize the profits from their development, making the industry stronger and robust to last for decades
- Teams: survive their stars, can compete in equal conditions generating more interest and increasing spectacle.
- Leagues: can organize better competitions, with more features, greater quality and more teams, which again implies a greater spectacle.
- Spectators: have more leagues, more teams, bigger competitions, a bigger offer of quality content, the chance to become professional or even winning money watching their favorite spectacle\"

Website & more info

More info: http://fluzo.tv.