Category Archives: Blog

After spending the last year heavily involved in the competitive gaming scene and starting various eSports companies, I’ve pondered a lot about where eSports is as a sport and the areas where it could improve upon in order to grow. Don’t get me wrong, the sport can improve in many areas, but one area in particular is the media coverage of Pro Gamers and Teams.

Just to give you some insight, as a writer and reporter for OneSpawn.com, one of my daily tasks is to go through my long list of RSS Feeds that I’ve subscribed to, and decide what is news worthy and what isn’t. RSS Feeds are typically taken from the ‘Blogs’ and ‘News’ sections of various eSports industry websites. So websites that post a lot of quality news, press releases, and updates are more likely to appear on media websites, like onespawn.com, or esfiworld, or cadred, etc…

One of the big issues I’ve come to find is that a vast majority of amateur/professional gaming teams and players don’t even have websites, therefore I can’t subscribe to the RSS feed, and the end result is these teams and players miss out on being covered and written about on news and media websites.

The argument I often get when asking pro gamers and teams about websites, is that their Twitter accounts serve as their blog or news platform. Let me be the one to say that Twitter SHOULD NOT be the sole platform of news and updates. Twitter streams are often flooded with too many replies, retweets, spam, and other B.S. In addition to that, Twitter streams are not clean and easy to follow along, as important messages and news often go missed and unreported. In other words, they’re a nightmare for reporters!

Examples of great websites that have regularly updated blogs, are Teamliquid and FNATIC. This is a reason why Starcraft 2 players make the most money, and are constantly in the media spotlight, when compared to other competitively played games.

Halo Reach is definitely one of the most disappointing with regards to professionalism and ease of reporting. It’s sad for me because I’ve always been a Halo franchise fan, and prefer to cover Halo related news over Starcraft II, COD, etc. Professional Halo Reach teams, especially the ones on the MLG Pro circuit, have no excuse for not having a user friendly website. If Halo Reach (and soon Halo 4) is to grow, and gain more media coverage, these teams and players need RSS integrated blogs.

At the end of the day, we understand that websites can be pricey and difficult to maintain, but for a professional gamer or team, in the long run the benefits definitely outweigh the costs!

If you were to tell the average person several decades ago, that Competitive Gamers would one day have the ability to earn 6-7 figure salaries, most people would have called you crazy. The common perception would have been that gaming is just a hobby, or that it rots your brain. Now, fast forward to the present, some gamers are making more than doctors and lawyers!

Today, eSports (Competitive Gaming) has become a global sport, and it continues to grow at a staggering rate. Much of the growth in recent years can be attributed to the media and corporate interest in the sport. In fact corporate sponsorship now makes up a large portion of a professional gamer’s salary. In the following article, we’re going to discuss the major sources of a pro gamer’s salary, as well as some average figures.

The first source of income for a pro gamer that we’ll discuss here, is from event winnings. Tournaments, Leagues, and LANs are the main types of competitive gaming events that offer prize money. Tournaments and LANs in the esports industry are typically put on by young entrepreneurs who charge an entry fee to players. Since these tournaments and lans are often relatively small-scale and with a limited budget, prize money usually sits in the range of $150-$500 per event for top finishers (1st-3rd place).

E-Sports Leagues on the other hand are typically better organized, have a larger operating budget, and offer substantially larger prize money for top finishers (1st-3rd place). Here, depending on the league, potential earnings can range from $500-$100,000+ per event. Leagues such as Major League Gaming (MLG) or World Cyber Games (WCG) are some of the better known and larger Competitive Gaming Leagues, where top professional gamers can earn a living competing in.

The second notable source of income for Pro Gamers is from corporate sponsorships. Top Professional Gamers often have the ability to acquire sponsorships and endorsements due to their marketing power which comes from regular interviews, large social media following, and large fanbase. Sponsoring companies will almost always be trying to market their brand/product/service to the video game playing demographic. A good-sized sponsorship for pro gamers will typically fall within the range of $10,000-$70,000+ over a contract period of 6-12months. For aspiring Pro Gamers who often reach out to companies for sponsorships, the most important questions you should be asking yourselves is “Why would this company sponsor me?” and “What can I do in return for this company to improve their marketing, if they sponsor me?”. If you can’t clearly answer these questions, then you’ll more than likely have little luck getting sponsored.

The third and more recent form of income that Professional Gamers are beginning to capitalize on is from revenue-sharing video streaming services such as YouTube, Justin.tv, twitch.tv, etc. The perk of being a Pro Gamer, is the fact that other gamers watch and analyze video of a Pro Gamer’s gameplay. Regularly uploading video gameplay or interviews, can earn Gamers revenue from ad impressions served to people who watch their videos. Depending on how many views you accumulate, figures can range from several hundred, to several thousand per month.

These are the 3 main forms of income of a Professional Gamer. Of course, there are certainly plenty of other areas competitive gamers can earn money too. For all you aspiring pro gamers, keep in mind you don’t need to be professional in order to earn money from participating in events, or though revenue sharing services like YouTube. Attend as many tournaments and LANs as possible, be persistent, and you might one day be a Pro Gamer too!

Earlier this week, our team at United Gamer Management unveiled a new logo design which has now been approved and implemented. Going forward we will be switching out, and updating all of our former logos out there in cyberspace for our directory listings, social media accounts, affiliate sites, online advertising, etc.

We believe the new logo really captures the professionalism and look of a World-class talent agency, but also contains a fresh and vibrant edge that’s suited to the e-sports industry.

We’re looking forward to getting everyone’s feedback on the change, such as thoughts and suggestions. Additionally, if you happen to stumble across any of our old logos out there on the internet, please drop us a line via email and share the link with us

All the best,

United Gamer Management (UGM) Team