eSports: profile of participants, complementarity with sports and its perception as sport. Evidence from sports video games

Research question: This study investigates three issues associated to the growing industry of eSports: the picture of participants in eSports and the correlates of the intensity of this participation; the complementary/substitutability relationship between eSports and traditional sports; and the perception of eSports as sport by the population. Research methods: Discrete choice, two-part and regression models are estimated using a sample of 11,018 individuals from the Survey on Sports Habits in Spain 2015. Results and Findings: The association of the correlates follows different patterns depending on whether considering participation or the intensity of this participation in eSports and also in terms of gender. Using different approaches, a significant degree of complementarity between participation and interest in eSports and traditional sports is estimated. For young people interested in eSports seems to an element influencing the overall interest in sports. Implications: Taking into account the different association of the correlates with the participation and the intensity of participation in eSports, this information could be used by firms in order to define marketing and brand investment strategies. The estimated complementarity between eSports and traditional sports should influence how the actual stakeholders in traditional sports define future strategies to favour the growth of both industries. The fact that eSports is increasingly perceived as a sport should have an influence, among others, in the collection of data on sports habits, in the way these activities are regulated and in the organization of multi-sport events, like the Olympic Games.