Professional gaming, or eSports as it's also known, is becoming a big business.
Whether it's down to the huge sponsorship deals being offered to professional players or the prize purses on offer at events, eSports will become much more prevalent in 2016 and beyond. Although most people might associate it with League of Legends, Call of Duty or the like, sports sims like FIFA '16 and UFC are making an impact.
German football team VfL Wolfsburg, currently ranked 8th in the Bundesliga, have now signed a professional FIFA '16 player to their team. Darren Bytheway, who's been playing professionally since he was 17, is one of two official gamers for VfL Wolfsburg. Furthermore, he believes it's only the beginning for eSports and football. Pretty soon, he believes, all teams will have FIFA '16 players on contract.
"Clubs give out contracts to players based on how they value them, so if esports continues to be be a major market and has a lot of value in it for clubs then obviously wages will go up for players as well," explained Bytheway. EA has a longstanding relationship with both the Premier League in England and football in general, sponsoring both the goal-decision mechanism in this year's League and the Fantasy Premier League game.
Although Bytheway isn't on anything close to what professional footballers earn, he says he's "definitely on a very comfortable wage at the moment," and believes that it's only a matter of time before the two disciplines catch up with one another.
Via Guardian.co.uk
