Introduction

Over the past few years, eSports have gained attention on an international scale, attracting hundreds of millions of spectators. The amount of time people around the world spend watching competitive video games continues to rise at a rapid pace, up 19% last year to more than 6 billion hours, according to a new report from analysts at IHS Markit.

In Hong Kong, this year’s budget speech by the Financial Secretary highlighted eSports as a new sector with great economic growth potential. In a parallel move, eSports are heading to the Asian Games and probably the Olympics. According to Newzoo’s Global Esports Market Report 2017, the global eSports economy is estimated to grow to US$696 million in the coming year, a year-on-year growth of 41.3%, with 52% of global revenue expected to be generated from China and North America. Given that eSports are now gaining immense popularity, would Hong Kong’s traditional entertainment industries leverage on innovation and technology to create value for their potential customers?