From its origins first as a hobby, then played in internet cafés and now filling stadiums, competitive professional gaming - esports – has become a global industry.

Digital Isle of Man has been swift to recognise the economic, cultural and social opportunities this fast-moving immersive technology and interactive entertainment sector presents.

The agency is therefore eager to support businesses and investors looking to enter this emerging and rapidly-evolving creative industry.

Esports executive Josh Kingett focuses principally on company structure. His involvement with the industry began 10 years ago, first as a professional player, then moving on to coaching and managing, before founding X7 Esports, the first esports organisation in the Isle of Man.

Working alongside Josh is esports executive Liam Slack, whose background is working with tournament operators, video game publishers and event organisers.

There’s a big difference between esports and egaming, as Josh explains: ‘Egaming is best described as gambling or betting, mostly using online software, playing anything from slots to sports books. Esports is essentially the professional side of the video game industry: a player versus a player or a team versus a team, for example.’

A fledgling sport back in the 1980s, esports is now a $2 billion industry. ‘And it’s been growing hugely year on year for the past decade,’ says Liam. ‘It’s important, though, to recognise that esports is a growing sub-section of the wider $90 billion video game industry.’

Esports events can fill a stadium, as Josh explains: ‘In 2019, over the entire duration of the League of Legends esports world championship, it attracted more viewers than the Super Bowl broadcast, which pulled in around 100 million.’

Josh and Liam are exploring how best Digital Isle of Man can develop esports opportunities. Liam says: ‘Much on the lines of its work with the egaming, blockchain and fintech industries, Digital Isle of Man is working with digital ecosystems and new emerging industries in the digital space. Josh and I are looking at building support mechanisms to attract these new enterprises and, in so doing, raise wider awareness of the Isle of Man as a fertile environment for the esports industry.’

Josh adds: ‘Previously there had been a focus on educating people about what esports is. But once people understand the concept and the potential opportunities esports offers, there’s nowhere for them to go, no businesses that can cater to the industry. So now part of our job is to attract and educate businesses about how they can add value to the industry and once we’ve achieved that we can then alert customers to the services available.’

Turning to what the life of a typical professional esports player can look like, Josh explains: ‘If you’re a high-level professional League of Legends player, for example, you’ll probably be training for eight to 10 hours a day and have analysis or review sessions with a head coach – maybe an assistant or strategic coach as well. Then there’s the mental health aspect. For example, players can be exposed to hostile comments online if they don’t perform well, so there’s a lot of support structure around that.

‘Then, alongside your mental wellbeing, you might have a personal trainer to ensure your physical health – you’re sedentary for hours and time can just fly past. When you see esports on stage for the first time with just a few players - say five - competing, you might think it’s just them and a coach. But behind that there are dozens of people, some monitoring your posture or your sleep patterns, for example.

‘At that extreme competitive level, the amount of behind-the-scenes support activity can get crazy.’

Looking to the future Liam says: ‘Over the next 12 months we’ll be holding more workshops, promoting our catalogue of services - not only locally but internationally - listening to and learning from businesses about what they want to bring to the island’s esports industry, and contributing our expertise to the shape of future legislation of the esports industry.’

‘A first Isle of Man esports event is inevitable,’ says Josh. ‘Right now, though, we can’t say when that might be, but when we do host one, we want to work with as many local partners as possible to make it happen. We’ve had conversations with big tournament operators who have been expressing interest, so an Isle of Man esports event’s definitely not outside the realms of possibility. It will happen at some point.’