![\"AFL](\"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2017\/05\/esports_afl-300x194.png.webp\" "\\"AFL")
\nTHE Australian Football League is preparing a landmark move into the booming eSports industry.<\/p>\n
\nTHE Australian Football League is preparing a landmark move into the booming eSports industry.<\/p>\n
In a bid to expand and diversify its revenue streams, the league will encourage clubs to sponsor existing teams or create their own squads of professional video gamers<\/a>.<\/p>\n It will also give the AFL an opportunity to penetrate the elusive ‘millennial’ market.<\/p>\n The 14-39 age bracket was once a stronghold for Australian football, but many young adults are now turning away from traditional live sports in favour of the virtual kind.<\/p>\n At the heart of the proposal is a live showpiece event at Etihad Stadium, of which the AFL took ownership in October 2016.<\/p>\n Darren Birch, the league’s general manager of growth, digital and audiences, said there were no doubts as to whether or not the project would capture the public’s imagination.<\/p>\n “eSports events sell out,” he told Fairfax media.<\/p>\n “They are amazing live events.<\/p>\n “There are more screens, more activities going on, more lights, more LED displays.<\/p>\n “Some of the tournaments I have seen show that eSports is more concert-like than sport-like, but that’s what appeals to that younger audience.<\/p>\n “All of these things make the experience bigger and bolder than your average sport.”<\/p>\n Earlier this year, the National Basketball Association became the first top-flight sports organisation to step boldly into that uncharted frontier when it unveiled the 2K eLeague.<\/p>\n That competition, which is scheduled to launch in 2018, will see gifted button-mashers drafted and signed by some of the biggest franchises in US sport.<\/p>\n Many Australian football clubs already sponsor other live sports teams, most notably in the AFL Women’s competition and Super Netball.<\/p>\n The eight clubs that participated in the inaugural AFLW season are already reaping the benefits of reaching out to a growing sector of the sporting community that had gone largely ignored for decades.<\/p>\n According to Birch, teams that venture into the $1.2 billion eSports industry can expect even greater rewards.<\/p>\n “eSports is very strong in the millennial area, so for us it is about diverse exposure to that audience,” he said.<\/p>\n “That’s no different to AFLW where we became more relevant to a female audience.<\/p>\n “Whether that translates into football is somewhat relevant but also not totally relevant.<\/p>\n “We want AFL, through eSports, to have the ability to generate a broader appeal for clubs and be able to bring more sponsors, revenue and consumption of your brand \u2013 whether that’s a live footy event or a live eSports event.”<\/p>\n Birch is one of thousands heading to Sydney this weekend for the Intel Extreme Masters tournament, where Counter-Strike: GO enthusiasts will duke it out for $260,000 in prize money.<\/p>\n This is a train that will not be stopped.<\/p>\n The eSports scene is no longer a niche for spotty teens who can’t kick a footy and don’t enjoy sunlight.<\/p>\nWhat we think of the AFL’s eSports revolution<\/h2>\n