Introduction When new sports are introduced to the global market, they are frequently met with disdain, ridicule, or mistrust. Even when those sports become popular, stalwarts of the old guard cling to their notion of what differentiates a “real” sport from a “mere” game or hobby. Some sports that are now entrenched in the Olympic games, such as snowboarding, were once derided. On the other hand, many sports that have been mainstays in the Olympics still do not meet all the typical definitions of what constitutes a sport. Synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics are physically challenging but are not sports in the way that rugby or soccer are. Yet the latter two are not included in the Olympics and the former two are. The most recent sport to command a considerable amount of media attention and controversy regarding its status is gaming—or eSports. eSports have taken the world by storm in recent years, with fans filling stadiums that hold 91,000 people (Stewart, 2017). Based on their proven spectator appeal and growing popularity worldwide, the advertising and marketing potential of eSports is even greater than it is for many traditional sports. Most eSports also demand both physical and psychological training, good sportsmanship practices, teamwork, and game strategy. Because they resemble traditional sports from the player perspective and the perspective of spectators and marketers, eSports can and should be considered “real sports.”

Literature Review

One of the first themes in a review of literature on eSports is whether they involve enough physical activity to be considered sports at all. According to Hallmann & Giel (2018), several professional sports organizations list physical activity as a “core element of sport,” (p. 2). Because gaming has been long associated with sedentary lifestyle, it has been unfairly...…Olympic events that do not yield nearly the viewership nor the sponsorship money that eSports derive. Economic considerations are important, though, in how a sport is defined. Keiper, Manning, Jenny, et al. (2017) note that the NCAA has recently been toying with the idea of adding eSports to intercollegiate athletic departments as a means of revenue generation and to diversify their athletic departments. Therefore, the literature generally supports eSports as being “real” on the grounds that eSports can bring in new sources of revenue for schools and also because eSports can teach students the essential qualities of good sportsmanship and discipline.
Marketing, spectator appeal, a specialized set of mental, social, and physical skills, strategy, and training are all dimensions of eSports. Both scholarly and popular texts focusing on the global phenomenon of eSports tend to support the idea that eSports are “real,” with opposing views gradually fading as eSports become increasingly popular around the world.…