As one of the representatives of the emerging industry, esports is gaining attention around the world.
On January 10, 2023, digital sports group Star Sport Weiwu said that the company completed the acquisition of Ninjas in Pyjamas, a well-known Swedish e-sports club, by way of equity exchange, and the two parties will jointly form Star Sport Group (NIP Group). After the completion of the merger, the original V5 Esports Club will be renamed NIP Esports Club and compete in the 2023 League of Legends Pro League Spring Tournament under the new identity of NIP.
Star Racing and NIP join hands to capture the global esports market
It is understood that this transaction is one of the largest cross-border mergers and acquisitions in the history of e-sports. After the merger, Star Sport Group will fully expand its overseas business and become a global comprehensive digital sports group covering the markets of China, Europe and South America.
According to public information, Star Sport is an influential comprehensive digital sports company in China, with a number of well-known brands such as "eStar E-sports Club", "V5 E-sports Club", "MAG Red Carp Culture" and "eStar Entertainment", covering e-sports clubs, event operations, digital sports talent brokerage, e-sports education and other diversified business sectors. At the same time, Star Sport is also the first and only e-sports company in China with dual home stadiums (Wuhan eStarpro home + Shenzhen V5 home), with branches of many mainstream e-sports projects such as "League of Legends", "Honor of Kings", "Crossfire", "QQ Speed", etc., and has repeatedly won excellent results in e-sports competitions.
NIP is an esports brand with more than 20 years of history, with esports teams such as CS:GO, Rainbow Six, Valorant, and FIFA World of Football, and has more than 5 million fans on social platforms.
In recent years, with the increase in the number of e-sports enthusiasts, the audience of e-sports has gradually expanded, world-class e-sports events have been held in China, and the Chinese e-sports market has also formed a relatively mature e-sports industry system and business model. According to Newzoo's "2022 Esports Market Report", the global esports industry revenue at the end of 2022 was close to US$1.38 billion, with a year-on-year growth rate of 27.29%, and the total revenue is expected to exceed US$1.86 billion in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 13.4%. By 2025, the number of core esports fans will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.0% to 318 million, while the total number of global esports viewers will exceed 640 million.
While the scale of the e-sports industry is growing, it has also created significant social value in the fields of talent training, industry norms, and jobs. Previously, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security released the "New Occupations - E-sports Players Employment Prosperity Analysis Report" showed that in the next five years, the demand for mainland e-sports talents will be nearly 3.5 million, and less than 15% of e-sports positions are currently in a state of human saturation. It is foreseeable that with the advancement of the esports industry, more jobs will be created in the future.
However, it is worth noting that the development of China's esports industry has never been decoupled from the global market. In the long run, the overall development space of single-country single-regional clubs is relatively limited. Industry insiders said that the cooperation between Star Sport and NIP will be possible to achieve win-win results and resource sharing while maintaining the original operation system, which is not only a step in the international layout of Star Sports, but also conducive to releasing the huge potential of e-sports clubs. More importantly, the consolidation of multinational players in the industry is conducive to improving the stability of esports companies. Previously, due to factors such as the hot cycle of the project, e-sports clubs were less stable than traditional sports clubs such as basketball and football. The emergence of more global esports groups has greatly reduced this risk.
Business diversification and expansion: The in-depth development of the e-sports industry continues to expand
In the digital era, competitive sports have shown a new development trend: the proportion of physical factors in sports has decreased, and the proportion of technology, willpower and other factors has continued to rise. In line with traditional competitive sports, e-sports, known as "super digital scenes", require high responsiveness and skills, teamwork and willpower of participants. These factors directly or indirectly affect the age distribution of the esports industry's audience. According to the 2021 China E-sports Industry Development Report, 30% of e-sports users are under the age of 25 and 68.2% are under the age of 34 in China.
Previously, IOC President Bach publicly said: "We cannot wait for young people to pay attention to the Olympic Games, but should take the initiative to integrate into their world." "E-sports is undoubtedly one of the most popular competitive sports among contemporary young people.
As early as November 18, 2003, the State General Administration of Sports officially approved e-sports as the 99th official sports competition. In 2008, the State General Administration of Sports reclassified e-sports as the No. 78 official sports competition. In the same year, the Jakarta Asian Games included e-sports as a performance event. On December 16, 2020, the Olympic Council of Asia announced that esports became an official sport of the Asian Games. On November 16, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that the inaugural Olympic Esports Week (OEW) will take place in Singapore from June 22-25, 2023.
From being listed as an official sports competition in 2003 to entering Asia in 2020, the development potential of e-sports is constantly being released. With a high base of young users, the esports industry has shown strong influence and great potential for business value. In recent years, the e-sports ecosystem has become more and more innovative. The deep integration of e-sports with popular concepts such as cultural tourism, hotels, and metaverse has also expanded the imagination of the track.
While deeply cultivating the e-sports track, Star Sport Group is also carrying out forward-looking layout in the upstream and downstream of digital sports. The company's subsidiaries MAG Red Carp Culture and Dawei Xianglong are leading domestic event operators and content service providers, Shinobi Studio provides content production and e-sports team management services for overseas sports clubs, and eStar Entertainment, a digital sports talent agency, has signed more than 10,000 anchors, covering mainstream live broadcast platforms such as Douyu, Huya and Douyin.
It is understood that in terms of business layout and commercial development, Star Sport Weiwu Group will base itself on the domestic market, expand overseas markets, drive the global development of the team's commercial value and world cultural exchanges, focus on the e-sports industry with a more systematic and standardized business outlook, and fully realize complementary advantages and resource sharing. It is worth mentioning that since it is an e-sports brand with a history of more than 20 years, it has begun to take the lead in the European e-sports market, and its strong business capabilities, deep fan influence and continuous brand appeal will help Star Sport Group open up the resource path between Chinese brands and overseas countries, and fully open up the global layout of Star Sport Group.
Through this cooperation with NIP, Star Sport Group also provides a model for more e-sports companies to go global. In the future, with the continuous growth of Chinese e-sports enterprises, more possibilities will be born for the internationalization of Chinese e-sports. In the global operation and cooperation, we will spread the positive value of Chinese e-sports to the world.