A week of news covering the intersection of business and gaming / esports, all in about one minute – everything you need to know from the “profit of esports” himself.
From the keyboard to the boardroom, this is the Business of Esports Minute! Every single week, I, Paul Dawalibi, the prophet of esports, will be bringing you my hottest takes from the week, basically everything you need to know about the business of esports all in about one minute. Let’s go.
This week, famous YouTuber MrBeast confirmed rumors that he is looking to own a League of Legends team and that he might already have something in the works. For the uninitiated, MrBeast has nearly 46M subscribers on YouTube and is famous for his giveaways and stunts. This is a massive audience that he will be able to bring to any esports team that he owns, and so it’s a venture that potentially makes a lot of sense for him. The question is will he take esports org ownership seriously or is this just part of an elaborate MrBeast marketing stunt.
Pokimane made news this week when she set her maximum donation amount to $5. She is currently one of the most popular streamers on the planet. Pokimane has often been vocal about not wanting her fans to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on her. This new donation limit was the result of a situation where Pokimane had a fan donate an amount he couldn’t afford. While her motivations are admirable here, I think there was probably a better way to execute this. She could easily have taken large donations and given them to charity. It’s also worrisome that she might just be getting bad business advice. The shelf life of any influencer is limited, and therefore it’s usually critical to extract maximum value from Pokimane’s current fame.
Finally, Samsung relaunched their Galaxy Store this week with a focus on mobile gaming. The timing of this relaunch is very opportune for Samsung as their competitors – Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store – are both entangled in legal battles with Epic Games. That legal battle has resulted in Fortnite being pulled from both Apple and Google’s stores. This leaves Samsung’s Galaxy Store as the only place to find, download and play Fortnite on mobile. It will be interesting to see if Samsung takes advantage and leans into this advantage, as it is most likely temporary. It also paves the way for a Fortnite phone potentially which is something I’ve said Epic should have done in the first place.
For far more detailed insight and discussion into the business of esports, as well as the most exceptional line-up of guests, please tune in every week to the Business of Esports podcast and every Wednesday evening into the Business of Esports after-show livestream. Also make sure to follow us on Twitter @bizesports and on YouTube at The Business of Esports.
