# data[].attributes.body
Option 1

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In his book The Price of Civilization, Jeffrey Sachs argues that the cost of making all public higher education free in America would be between fifteen and thirty billion dollars. While this may sound like a large sum, it could actually save money. First of all, the government is currently spending billions of dollars on for-profit schools and other colleges and universities that have very low graduation rates. In fact, what is going on in the state of California is that as students get priced out of the University of California, they either drop out or go to community colleges. Meanwhile as community colleges are defunded, they are forced to cut their enrollments and raise their fees, and the result is that students end up going to high-cost for-profit schools that have a very low graduate rate. In other words, in the current system, everyone pays more, and we produce fewer graduates.

Currently, only 30% of Americans who start college or university end up graduating, and this represents a huge waste of time and money. If students did not have to work while in school, the graduation rate would improve drastically, and students at universities could graduate in four years instead of six or more years. In fact, the biggest reason why students drop out of higher education is that they cannot afford the high cost of tuition.

Not only is higher education seen as a key to economic advancement, but if all 18-24 year olds were in college, we would reduce the unemployment rate by 2 million people, and fewer people would be in need of governmental assistance. Moreover, a federal program to fund higher education would relieve states of having to fund these institutions, which would free up money for other needed services.

While the US has a free K-12 public education, its failure to fund higher education means that America's economy is unable to compete with other developed nations that have free universities. Furthermore, by removing the need for students to go into debt, the government would allow graduates to be more productive, and they would have more money to spend, which in turn would act as a stimulus for the economy.

Of course, there are reasons beyond economics to provide free higher education. Not only do we need a more educated workforce, but we also need more educated citizens. It is also important to point out that people with higher education degrees report a higher level of health and happiness. In fact, societies with a high rate of degree attainment have lower crime rates and higher rates of social welfare.

While President Obama has endorsed the need for the U.S. to increase the number of citizens with higher education degrees, he has done very little to support this process. Not only do we need to push our politicians to support free universal higher education, but we have to show the voting populace that a federal program would help to alleviate the incredible expense that postsecondary education now costs middle-class families.

Along with funding higher education, the federal government could also rein in costs by setting realistic caps on tuition increases. Moreover, by improving access and affordability, the government could improve the quality of instruction by forcing schools to concentrate their spending on research and instruction. The federal government could also take on the task of rating and ranking colleges so that we are no longer dependent on US News & World Report, which has a corrosive influence on institutions of higher education. Instead of schools spending money on lavish amenities, universities and colleges could be motivated to concentrate their resources on reducing class size and hiring more full-time faculty.

While few people would now reject the idea of compulsory K-12 education, it is now time to make college universal and free.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why All Public Higher Education Should Be Free

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In his book The Price of Civilization, Jeffrey Sachs argues that the cost of making all public higher education free in America would be between fifteen and thirty billion dollars. While this may sound like a large sum, it could actually save money.

# data[].attributes.body
Option 1

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This is Ellie . She's 22 years old and lives in Stockholm, where she studies engineering and media technology at the Royal Institute of Technology. There's no tuition to pay for the five-year course of study. And because she is from Stockholm, Ellie was able to live at home with her parents for the first couple years of her university career.

"My parents told me, 'You are very stupid to move out because every month you save like 4,000 kroner,'" she said.

In a way, she's an outlier. Sweden population of roughly 9.1 million--smaller than Belgium's--is sprinkled pretty evenly over a geographic expanse greater than Germany's. So for many Swedes, living with mom and dad while attending school isn't an option.

But Ellie is also like most Swedish students, in that she's taken student aid from the Centrala Studiestödsnämnden, or CSN , the state-sponsored entity that distributes student aid in the form of grants and loans.

"Everyone takes the grants," she said. "Almost everyone takes the loan as well."

She's right. According to data collected by the OECD, despite nonexistent tuition costs, Sweden has a virtually 100% uptake rate on student aid. That's why Sweden is all by itself in the bottom right corner of this chart, although its Nordic neighbors are not far behind.

Moving out
Swedes, like other Nordic Europeans, have an independent streak. They leave their parental homes earlier than almost all their southern neighbors.

One study found that just 2% of Swedish men lived with their parents after the age of 30. In Spain, a quarter of 30-year-old men still are shacking up with mom and dad; in Italy it was around 32%.

Nobody's exactly sure why this is. One of the more fascinating theories is that the differences in the strength of family ties in northern and southern Europe is a faint echo of invasions by the Roman Empire and Islamic caliphates in the Mediterranean region versus the Germanic-Nordic dominance in regions further north.

Or it could reflect the fact that back in the middle ages, young people in northern Europe were often sent out to work as servants outside the family home. Others simply argue that it's the economy, with low wages and high housing costs conspiring to keep southern Europeans living at home.

Whatever the reason, ideas about youthful independence are embedded in the system Sweden devised to pay for higher education. For example, whereas in the US parents are expected to help pay for the their children's college education, in Sweden parental income levels are just not part of the equation. Students are viewed as adults, responsible for their own finances. As a result "levels of student support are based on students' own income, rather than that of their parents," wrote analysts in a white paper on the system. Compare that to countries like Germany, where any aid from the state agency that doles it out, known as BAföG, is premised on parental income. In the US it's the same deal. In Sweden, the entire system is aimed at severing the financial link between parents and young adults.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The High Price of a Free College Education in Sweden

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Here's why Swedish college students still graduate with a ton of debt.

# data[].attributes.body
Option 1

# data[].attributes.headline
What Is the Right Age to get a Cell Phone?

# data[].attributes.subject
What Is the Right Age to get a Cell Phone?

# data[].attributes.body
Option 2

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By the time they're toddlers, most children are excited about phones. They know how to play games, watch videos, take pictures, and Facetime their grandparents. In idle moments they beg for - or grab for - mom or dad's phone.

But when are kids old enough - and responsible enough - to have their own phone? And what should they be able to do with it?

"The question has flipped from when to get your kid a phone, to how do you make it so the introduction of the phone is in line with their developmental stage?" explains Dave Anderson, PhD, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute. "It may be helpful for a fourth grader to have a phone to be in touch with you when they need to be picked up or are on a sleepover, but most parents don't want their late elementary or early middle school kids diving into the internet and social media apps."

Pressure on parents

By the time kids are in middle school, the pressure from kids can be intense, and parents worry that their child will feel isolated if other kids have phones and they don't. According to Common Sense Media, 42 percent of kids have a phone by age 10. By age 12, it's 71 percent. By 14, it's 91 percent.

Max Stossel, the founder and CEO of Social Awakening, a group that promotes healthy use of technology and social media, recommends that parents hold the line on giving kids smartphones until at least eighth grade. A parent group called Wait Until 8th aims to help parents in a school community band together by taking a pledge that they won't give their kids smartphones until they're reached eighth grade. The parents who sign this pledge are put in touch with one another for support.

One strategy to avoid the risky and addictive features of smart phones, Stossel notes, is to start kids off on a phone that can't be used for social media, gaming, or surfing the web. A Gabb Phone, for instance, can be used for calling and texting. It also has a camera, calendar, FM radio, and GPS, so it enables you to monitor where your child is. But there is no app store, picture messages or group texts.

Smartphones themselves also offer parents the ability to use the phone's controls to set limits. "This is where cell phone companies have matured in the past couple years," notes Dr. Anderson. "Parents can set safeguards on what apps can be downloaded onto the phone."

Smartphones allow you to limit not only apps kids have access to, but the types of movies and TV shows they can watch. And you can set time limits on things like gaming, entertainment, and social media, and keep tabs on what they're doing during screen time. (For details on how to set limits on smart phones, check out this piece in Consumer Reports.)

The most potentially dangerous elements of this are social media and the unfiltered internet. Stossel recalls a colleague who when speaking to groups of students, would ask for a volunteer to come up and show the class how to get around a school's firewall. Each time a student would do so easily, explaining which apps to use to reach blocked websites.

"So the kids are always going to be a step ahead of their parents," Stossel adds. "And trying to monitor everything they have access to can be a full-time job."

He recommends the parental control tool Bark, which monitors a child's activity on social networks, YouTube, email and text messages. It filters for signs of harmful content, including sexual material, threats of violence, depression, suicidal ideation, and bullying. Parents get email and text alerts if there is something concerning in the child's online activity. It can also be used to limit screen time and to block individual websites.

Screen Time is another tool that allows you to set time limits on daily screen time, block out periods when screens are not to be used, and includes categories of sites and individual URLS.

Jerry Bubrick, PhD, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute, says he is often asked what's the right age to give a kid a phone. "I tell parents that it's not so much about a particular age as it is about a kid's social awareness and understanding of what the technology means," Dr. Bubrick explains. When you're considering whether to get a phone, and how much kids should be allowed to do on it, he recommends considering these issues:

How often does your child lose things, especially expensive things? If you tell them something is extra important, do they take special care of it, or leave it on the bus after a few days?

How well does your child handle money? Will they be in the middle of a game and impulsively buy more lives without considering their cost?

How savvy is your child about technology? Do they truly understand that future college admissions staff, employers, and colleagues could conceivably see anything they post now?

How well does your child do with limits to screen time? If they are constantly glued to the computer or game console, they will probably have difficulty putting down the phone as well.

The constant stimulation cell phones can provide can be especially distracting for kids with ADHD. "Phones are made to be as reinforcing as possible," explains Dr. Anderson. "If you're not getting an email, you're getting a social media update, or you're checking a news feed, or you're checking a sports score."

Children with ADHD find it more difficult to resist all that stimulation, and to stay tuned in to activities that are less reinforcing but more important, like homework or dinner table conversation.

Their impulsivity could also make them more likely to post or send something they may regret later on. In a world where everything you create is recorded in cyberspace, they are at risk for making long-lasting mistakes.

If you're ready to take the plunge

If you're getting your child a phone, experts recommend setting clear guidelines in a conversation before they receive the device. Here are some sample rules that parents can apply to their kids' cell phone use:

Agree on limits to how much money is available to cover the data plan and any game or app expenses.

Get them a good case, and determine what the consequences will be if the phone is lost or broken. Will it be replaced? And, if so, who will pay for it?

Specify times of the day when using the phone is not allowed, such as late at night or during family activities.

When your kids start using social media sites, monitor them and make them aware that you are doing so.

While you may choose to enforce different rules, make sure they are clear from the very beginning, the experts say, and establish consequences if these guidelines are not followed.

"You're training your kids to make good decisions over time," explains Dr. Bubrick, "so that eventually, when they leave you, you can trust that they will make those good decisions on their own."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
When Should You Get Your Kid a Phone? - Child Mind Institute

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What age should a child get a phone? Child Mind Institute explains it's not always about age when it comes to phones for kids. It's more about maturity.

# data[].attributes.headline
What Is the Right Age to get a Cell Phone?

# data[].attributes.subject
What Is the Right Age to get a Cell Phone?

# data[].attributes.body
Option 2

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
when kids get first cell phone around the world - cnn

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
When kids get first cell phone around the world

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
At what age are children across cultures given their own cell phones, and how many are carrying mobile devices? Here's what international studies have found.

# data[].attributes.headline
What Is the Right Age to get a Cell Phone?

# data[].attributes.subject
What Is the Right Age to get a Cell Phone?

# data[].attributes.body
Option 2

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It's the time of year when kids are thinking about their holiday wish lists. So what's a parent to do when a child, possibly a very young child, asks for a smartphone?

We hear that smartphones can be addictive, that screen time can hurt learning, but can't these minicomputers also teach kids about responsibility and put educational apps at their tiny fingertips?

To learn more, let's look at two families: one where smartphones are allowed for elementary to middle school-aged kids, and one where they are not.

Sydney Crowe is in sixth grade and has a smartphone. While she admits she mostly uses it for "playing games and watching television," her mom, Patty, says that's not why Sydney got the phone.

Patty's main concern was safety. When Syndey was in fourth grade, the bus missed her stop enough times to really worry her parents. Without means to call an adult, she would walk to school near a busy highway.

That's when Patty gave her daughter a flip phone. But Sydney never charged it - she forgot about it. To her, a flip phone wasn't fun. "She wasn't using the junky phone," says Patty. So when her husband wanted to upgrade his iPhone, they decided to give the old one to Sydney as a hand-me-down.

Patty says she rolled her eyes at the idea of her child having a smartphone, but ultimately decided to allow it for one main reason: peace of mind.

On the other side of the debate, there's Mercy Shannon. She's 9 years old and doesn't have a cellphone. She likes playing house, playing outside and singing on her karaoke machine.

Mercy's mom, Brooke Shannon, like many other parents of elementary school kids, faced the cellphone decision early on. "They started asking for a phone in first grade," she says about her kids.

Brooke felt pressure from her children, yes, but also from other parents. So she started an online pledge that she calls "Wait Until 8th" to create a community of parents within each school waiting to give their kids smartphones until at least eighth grade - when most children are out of elementary and nearing high school. So far, more than 4,000 families across the country have signed the online pledge.

In addition to wanting her kids to have a break from screens, Brooke worries about the effects, specifically, of social media.

"Children just don't have the brain development at this age to be able to navigate the tricky social situations that come with social media," she says.

That isn't just a parent concern. Richard Freed, a California-based child psychologist and author of a book on the subject, wanted to research the topic after seeing an increase in the number of children coming to him with anxiety and depression.

His suggestion? Put some ground rules in place. "I want parents to understand how remarkably powerful and seductive these technologies are," he says.

Many agree that there's no magic age to give a kid a smartphone. Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on kids and technology, says rather than considering the age of a child, focus on maturity. Some questions to consider are:

Are they responsible with their belongings?

Will they follow rules around phone use?

Would having easy access to friends benefit them for social reasons?

And do kids need to be in touch for safety reasons? If so, will an old-fashioned flip phone (like the one Sydney never charged) do the trick?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Deciding At What Age To Give A Kid A Smartphone

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It's the time of year when kids are thinking about their holiday wish lists. So what's a parent to do when a child, possibly a very young child, asks for a smartphone? We hear that smartphones can be addictive, that screen time can hurt learning, but can't these minicomputers also teach kids about responsibility and put educational apps at their tiny fingertips?

# data[].attributes.body
Option 3

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Inside, a shining trophy stands upon a pedestal. The players arrive, eyeing it covetously as they make their way to their positions.

Suited pundits have had their say and hand over to the commentators.

One team forms a pre-match huddle; the other waits patiently for the game to commence.

A stirring light show ceases; a chanting crowd falls to an expectant hush.

But this isn't the Champions League final. This isn't Wimbledon. This isn't the Super Bowl.

This is eSports, dubbed by data analytics service Newzoo as the "biggest thing to hit (the tech) industry since the launch of the iPhone in 2007."

In South Korea, stadiums once used to host football matches at the 2002 FIFA World Cup are now frequently packed to capacity with eSports fans, looking on as a new generation of heroes wields keyboard and mouse.

According to Newzoo, the eSports global audience grew from 204 million to 292 million between 2014 and 2016 -- a 43% increase in just two years -- and it's projected to exceed 427 million around the world by 2019.

Global revenue in the eSports industry rose from $194 million to $463 million in the same period -- a 239% increase -- and is expected to smash $1 billion by 2019.

"In 10 years' time, it will be as big as NHL," leading gamer Olof Kajbjer tells CNN.

He's not the only one with grandiose aspirations. Carlos "ocelote" Rodriguez, founder of G2 Sports, regards his "premier eSports club" as "Real Madrid on a smaller level."

If such comparisons feel a little false, it's worth noting eSports participants now qualify for a US p-1 Visa, henceforth reserved for professional athletes -- "a watershed moment," according to Dustin Beck, vice-president of eSports at Riot Games.

Back to you in the studio

But the entrepreneurs and gamers are not the only ones shouting from the rooftops about this multimillion-dollar industry.

"Shoutcasters" -- ESports commentators -- "add that special touch to it," just as they do in traditional sports broadcasting, according to Shaun Apollo Clark.

Clark routinely studies the players -- "not just the way they play the game but the way they live" -- to ensure eSports is a "complete" spectator sport.

Stadiums packed with partisan fans and gaming stars are now cropping up in England, Poland and Germany.

"It's the same as if you go to a football match and you're jumping up and down," Clark says. "You enjoy the moment with people you don't even know. It stays with you.

"Ten years ago I was playing in front of an audience of five people as a pro player. The next 10 years in eSports? I would say that's the next 100 years in real sports."

Hallmarks of conventional sport?

The global audience, revenue and ambition of eSports are hardly in doubt, then -- but these are not necessarily the hallmarks of conventional sport. What of the elements of competition, entertainment and skill?

Sam Mathews, founder of Fnatic -- which lists itself as a "Sports Team" on Facebook and has over 2.5 million likes -- tells CNN that he defines eSports "as competition augmented by technology."

"ESports really are highly strategic," Mathews says. "It can be up to 10, 12 hours a day of gaming just to perform that one movement or skill shot better."

"We have a live-in coach, we have analysts, we have ... basically a huge support network."

The general consensus is that if physical exertion and sheer power are dispelled, reflexes and mental agility come to the fore.

Still, mindful of the saying that a healthy body is a healthy mind, many professionals spend hours in the gym to help keep their brains sharp.

The desire to be the best manifests itself in eSports just as it does in traditional sports, according to " Yellowstar," a leading League of Legends player.

"If you perform, you are going to receive a lot of praise," he explains. "If you were to miss or fail an action, you can bring your team down, affect your team's performance and get a lot of blame."

No wonder certain players hit 500 APM (actions per minute) on popular game Starcraft 2 -- over eight per second.

These aren't just kids playing video games.

"The stereotypical gamer is dead," according to Fnatic's chief gaming officer Patrik Sattermon.

Injuries and scandals

Just as in conventional sport, "you need storylines, you need personalities," muses Mathews, founder of Sattermon's team.

If sport is narrative, the eSports story is only just beginning. The Fnatic team refer to Sattermon as "our Sir Alex Ferguson" -- the former all-conquering Manchester United manager.

But convergence with the big boys has brought a concomitant set of issues.

Fully-fledged stats are not yet available, but according to Newzoo, gaming injuries are "a gradually growing problem, and something that the teams are trying to combat by hiring relevant staff as well as with education."

With so much money at stake, there have also been match-fixing and doping scandals in recent years.

An independent regulatory board, WESA, has consequently been established.

WESA claims it will "further professionalize eSports by introducing elements of player representation, standardized regulations, and revenue sharing for teams."

It's worth pointing out that extreme sports -- perhaps the very opposite of a teen spending 16 hours in a darkened room playing "Dungeons And Dragons" -- faced similar skepticism when they began to receive consistent press coverage in the early 1990s.

The X-Games (the Olympics of extreme sports) has grown from small beginnings, and many of the sports it features, like snowboarding, have since played a large part at the official Winter Games.

An idea that seemed a pipe dream now looks an inevitable ascension and, curiously enough, it's gone full circle: eSports is now appearing in the X-Games.

Looking forward

Whether it's deemed a sport or not by the mainstream media ultimately seems of little concern to the average eSports fan.

What's striking is that while conventional sports reflect back upon grand times gone by, eSports fans, commentators and players are only looking forward.

"When I was very young I used to watch Formula One, football and tennis with my father," says Rodriguez. "Maybe when I have my son, he's going to watch football, Formula One and eSports."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
esports: is professional video-gaming a sport? - cnn

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Inside, a shining trophy stands upon a pedestal. The players arrive, eyeing it covetously as they make their way to their positions. Suited pundits have had their say and hand over to the commentators. One team forms a pre-match huddle; the other waits patiently for the game to commence.

# data[].attributes.body
Option 3

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Madison Square Garden is known as the world's most famous arena. The midtown Manhattan home of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers, the Garden has sold out thousands of basketball, hockey, and other sporting events since opening in 1968, along with concerts, circuses, dog shows, political conventions, and even a papal Mass. Yet a pair of back-to-back sellouts in October 2016 heralded not just an entertainment bonanza for the Garden but also a burgeoning global sports phenomenon.

The occasion was the semifinals of the League of Legends World Championship, a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game. LoL, for short, is the most popular title in competitive video gaming, or e-sports, as it's known among the nearly 220 million players around the world. It's one thing to play a video game for hours on end, and quite another to pay to watch people playing video games. On those two nights, 15,000 fans, most of them millennials and younger, packed the Garden - paying upward of US$75 per ticket - and went crazy as they followed the blazing action at center court and on the jumbotron overhead.

The final two teams, both from South Korea, duked it out a week later at a standing-room-only Staples Center in Los Angeles, with the winners splitting the $1 million grand prize. That five-game playoff wrapped up LoL's monthlong, four-city, $6.7 million total purse tournament, which the company said was live-streamed to an estimated global audience of nearly 400 million. (For comparison, about 1 billion people tuned in to the 2014 World Cup soccer final between Argentina and Germany.)

E-sports has emerged as a force on the entertainment and media landscape slowly - and all at once. As video games evolved from a leisurely pursuit to a full-blown craze, the business model first centered on game publishers, such as Nintendo, Atari, and Electronic Arts, and PCs and gaming consoles. Then, over the past decade or so, gaming innovations, the spread of broadband Internet, and changing consumer habits have seen gaming morph into a vibrant and viable industry of its own. And as a media business, e-sports has a compelling set of attributes. In an era of distraction and short attention spans, e-sports commands the focus of young people who are otherwise shifting away from established modes of media consumption.

The rapid growth and high level of engagement are translating into real money. According to the PwC Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2018-2022, a comprehensive source of advertising and consumer spending data available on June 6, 2018, total e-sports revenues across 20 countries - comprising sponsorships, media rights, streaming advertising, the consumer contribution to prize pots, and ticket sales - was estimated at $620 million in 2017, up 43.7 percent from $432 million in 2016. That total is forecast to reach $1.6 billion in 2022, rising at a 20.6 percent compound annual growth rate (see "E-Sports Reach Critical Mass"). Newzoo, an Amsterdam-based market research firm, estimates that the worldwide e-sports viewing audience grew in 2017 to 385 million, up nearly 20 percent from 326 million in 2016, and has a projected fan base of nearly 900 million by 2020.

Those revenue and viewership numbers are among the fundamental building blocks in the business model of e-sports as it sidles up alongside America's Mount Rushmore of sports leagues - the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, and the National Hockey League. Although it still has a long way to go to fully join, and compete for revenues with, those big leagues, e-sports is emulating the same growth patterns they experienced on the way to success. "The evidence is there," contends Rick Burton, the David Falk Professor of Sport Management at Syracuse University. "Every metric shows that the growth of e-sports is going straight up."

E-sports leagues are forming around professional franchises, teams, and players, and aligning with brand-name video game titles such as LoL, as well as the NBA and FIFA, the international soccer federation. Expanding television and Internet viewership is leading to major media-rights deals, which are convincing more advertisers and sponsors to hop on the bandwagon. The demand for live events is spurring construction of dedicated e-sports venues. And, feeling e-sports nipping at their heels - and not wanting to be left out - traditional sports leagues, teams, owners, and athletes are investing in the industry. "It's high-level competition that's wildly entertaining and sells out arenas," says Darin Kwilinski, senior editor for ESPN's e-sports group. (Yes, the "worldwide leader in sports" now recognizes and covers the category.)

Evolution of a Sport

Historically, sports have evolved from games and hobbies into organized competition - and then into businesses. Baseball emerged in the 1840s from an earlier bat-and-ball pastime called rounders, and basketball from James Naismith's notion in 1891 to shoot a soccer ball up and through a peach basket. E-sports is following a similar pattern. It evolved from video games such as Pong and Donkey Kong, rudimentary titles hatched in 1972 and 1981, respectively. The original business model for the game developers was to sell the games and the devices they were played on as consumer products through the electronics and toys retail channel.

Moore's Law and sequential advances in computing power and graphics unleashed myriad video games enhanced with 3D animation that brought phantasmagorical characters, creatures, and worlds to movie-quality life. They were played on souped-up computers and gaming consoles, mostly Sony's PlayStation and, later, Microsoft's Xbox, and increasingly on mobile devices. Gamers played alone or against multiple players anywhere in the world via the Internet. The business evolved to more closely resemble software publishing, with new releases every year.

Next, competitions started to form organically. Competitive video gaming actually dates back to 1972, when Stanford University students staged a team tournament on campus based on the game Spacewar. From there the Internet spread the joy(stick) farther with the expansion of broadband service to carry gaming's heavy data loads. By the year 2000, online amateur and professional players from all corners of the globe were simultaneously vying to win increasingly sophisticated games. Some games were sports-oriented, starring avatars of popular real-world athletes and teams. Others were so-called shooter games with hordes of fantastical virtual characters fighting hand-to-hand or with gigantic guns and other lethal weaponry, acquiring increased skills as they advanced through levels.

Then, in a step that few predicted, people began to watch others play games. The term e-sports entered the lexicon around the turn of the millennium, along with an even glossier generation of games. Organically, and not as a result of any master business model, fans flocked to organized competitions among professional teams of well-paid players, not only in person but online. Twitch, a video-streaming platform that launched in 2011, was likely the first media business built around gaming. Before Amazon bought it for an eye-catching $970 million in 2014, Twitch had amassed a worldwide audience of more than 55 million viewers, who were glued to 15 billion-plus minutes of content.

Twitch, a video-streaming platform that launched in 2011, was likely the first media business built around gaming.

In 2017, according to esportsearnings.com, the most popular e-sports titles, after LoL, were Call of Duty, Defense of the Ancients 2 (popularly known as Dota 2), Overwatch, and StarCraft - all in the MOBA genre. MOBAs are complex, real-time strategy games, with human players assuming virtual characters, each armed and possessing abilities accumulated during intense battles. Opponents attack one another's bases, looking to blast their enemies and their home bases into cyber oblivion.

During typical tournament play, five-person teams of gamers, donning headsets and sitting in front of PC keyboards and monitors, compete head-to-head, with play-by-play "casters" calling the live action. Fans, in attendance or online, listen in as teammates continuously communicate with one another, and chat with the players as well. Separately, on social media, star players stream on Twitch and interact with fans. There are also apps that let people create chat rooms where teams or players interact.

Several publicly traded companies develop and publish e-sports titles and other video games. The largest is Tencent Holdings, whose Riot Games division is behind LoL. Activision Blizzard owns Call of Duty, Overwatch, and StarCraft. Take-Two Interactive publishes Grand Theft Auto and the basketball title NBA 2K. Electronic Arts, founded in 1982, has thrived with annually updated sports titles, including Madden NFL and FIFA, both of which are entering the e-sports arena. Smaller, independent publishers are joining the fray, too, such as PUBG Corp., whose PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds became an overnight sensation when it was released in late 2017.

The popularity of Twitch and live e-sports streamed on YouTube and broadcast on TBS highlighted the meteoric rise in fan viewership and the particular demographic characteristics of those fans. About 70 percent of the predominantly millennial-aged audience is male, according to Nielsen Esports, a recently created division of the media measurement and analysis firm. They thrive on social media, are avid ad blockers, and don't watch traditional TV or respond to conventional advertising nearly as much as older generations - which puts them outside the reach of traditional media. Although they are passionate, e-sports fans spend only 17 percent of their leisure time and money on gaming.

By attracting a disproportionate share of the attention of young, predominantly male viewers, e-sports solves one problem for media. Another factor is working in the new industry's favor: The social and cultural context is changing to make e-sports appealing for participants. Historically, parents have feared the latest teen craze - comic books, rock and roll, TV, smartphones - as the end of civilization. But part of the acceptance of gaming is its relative safety and the availability of parental control. "Over the past several years, there's been a pronounced discussion about the dangers of playing American football," says Syracuse's Burton. Indeed, participation in football nationally among kids ages 6 to 12 fell by nearly 30 percent between 2008 and 2016, according to data from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. "Throw into that a media and parental orientation that allowing my child to go outside alone or to play unsupervised with friends is a dangerous thing," Burton says. Now, as millennials - many of whom grew up on video games themselves - start to become parents, e-sports could become a family activity.

Growing Professionalization

In the past few years, e-sports has leveled up toward professionalization. A series of coincident developments is helping to build the talent, infrastructure, and business models that put the sports in e-sports.

Legitimate leagues, franchises, and pro player development have risen up from the grassroots fan base. Video gamers are engaged in season-long, rules-based competitions that culminate in championship tournaments. Publisher-organized leagues have formed around LoL, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Dota 2, whose 2016 international tournament awarded more than $20.7 million in winnings - roughly double the total payout of the Professional Golfers' Association's Masters tournament.

In an innovative twist on that model, Activision Blizzard created the first-person shooter game Overwatch, released two years ago, from the ground up as the basis of an e-sports league. Even as it cultivated 35 million global players, the company was selling a dozen franchises, in cities including New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, London, and Seoul, at a reported $20 million each. Investors include New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, a New York team led by New York Mets COO Jeff Wilpon, a Los Angeles team owned by Denver Nuggets co-owner Stan Kroenke and his son, Josh, and a San Francisco team led by Andy Miller and Mark Mastrov, co-owners of the Sacramento Kings.

The Overwatch League debuted in January, live-streamed on Twitch as part of an exclusive two-year, $90 million media rights deal with Blizzard. The online audience peaked at more than 415,000 viewers on opening night, and rarely dipped below 150,000 at any point during the first week. The first season is being played at Blizzard Arena in Burbank, Calif. - where all 450 seats sold out for the inaugural tourney. But Blizzard anticipates a more traditional sports league model, with in-season games and playoffs rotating among franchise cities.

The number of pro e-sports players is modest compared with those in the big four leagues. But many of the same enticements that spur young people to practice hard and pursue their dreams are there, including six-figure salaries, housing and transportation, coaches, nutritionists, and sports psychologists. According to the latest data from esportsearnings.com, 46 of the top 100 highest-paid e-sports players have accumulated more than $1 million in prize earnings - led by Germany's 25-year-old Kuro "KuroKy" Takhasomi (every pro has a nickname), at more than $3.5 million. The 100th-highest-earning player has earned at least $575,000, which tops the minimum salary in Major League Baseball ($545,000). (Of course, with the salaries and the fan adulation come some of the downsides of professional sports. Some e-sports players are suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome, and others have abused Adderall.)

Just as with professional sports, talent pipelines are being developed. E-sports has entered the college ranks; more than 50 schools are affiliated with the National Association of Collegiate Esports, some with varsity teams offering scholarships and playing in on-campus e-sports venues. Last year, several members of the Big Ten Conference, which includes Michigan, Maryland, and Rutgers, broadcast a LoL conference tournament on its TV network, reaching a potential 60 million households nationally.

Fields of Dreams

The next leap in legitimizing e-sports has been the development of physical infrastructure for events. In that sense, e-sports is turning the "if you build it, they will come" strategy on its head. Fans are already attending e-sports in droves, but they're mostly doing so online. Building venues for gaming is a way to make a deeper consumer connection that engenders loyalty in local communities, fuels another layer of intercity sports rivalries, and provides a new platform for sponsorship and advertising. NBA teams are retrofitting their arenas to accommodate the NBA 2K league events. The Milwaukee Bucks are erecting a brand-new "smart" complex to host both their NBA and NBA 2K teams. "We are creating a venue that will have e-sports lounges to play in, and we obviously want our arena to be a destination for tournaments," says Bucks president Peter Feigin, referring to the $524 million Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center, which opens in the fall of 2018.

Allied Esports, a network of e-sports content producers and properties, has redone the Luxor Hotel and Casino nightclub in Las Vegas to create the Esports Arena, the Strip's first such dedicated venue, which opened in March 2018. Allied already had an Esports Arena in Santa Ana, Calif., in a renovated three-story, 95-year-old historic brick building in the city's downtown. Inside, players are flanked on three sides by bleachers filled with a couple hundred fans, with play-by-play casters nearby. A French startup, Meltdown, has sold franchises for e-sports bars in Europe and Canada, and has plans to expand into the United States.

Advertising dollars tend to follow eyeballs - albeit with a lag of several years. And the millions of online viewers are finally starting to attract millions of advertising dollars. "This year, the biggest revenue stream in e-sports, about $360 million, will come from sponsorships," says Jurre Pannekeet, a senior market analyst at Newzoo. Advertising will add another $170 million. Investing marketing dollars on e-sports leagues, teams, tournaments, individual players, streaming services, and TV broadcasts remains much cheaper on a per-viewer basis than traditional sports, and offers a more cost-effective way to reach the millennial market and its attractive digital generation.

Selling ads and striking sponsorship deals makes perfect sense for video game publishers seeking revenues beyond sales of their titles, and now non-endemic brands are lining up. More than 600 e-sports sponsorship deals have been sealed since the beginning of 2016, highlighted by such names as Coca-Cola, Intel, Bud Light, and Mercedes-Benz. The North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS) is partnering with Acer and American Express. Toyota, Sour Patch Kids, and T-Mobile have deals with the Overwatch League. "As brands learn more about e-sports, its participants, its viewers, and the technology that underpins it, expect to see ever more sophisticated activations and integration leading to greater return on investment," says Nicole Pike, managing director of Nielsen Esports.

Some of the sports leagues that have proven their marketing savvy are now viewing e-sports as the next frontier. "We saw an opportunity to create a league with our partner Take-Two around our NBA 2K game, using a new set of competitors who are professional gamers," NBA commissioner Adam Silver told strategy+business (see " NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Has a Game Plan "). Qualifying matches got under way in January 2018, with 17 teams fielding squads of amateur and pro gamers, in advance of league competition running from May through August. The NBA will allow its 2K League teams to sell the naming rights and signage on their virtual stadiums within the video game, as well as on logo patches on players' virtual jerseys.

Furthering its maturation, e-sports is now seeing innovation in business models and an influx of major capital commitments. Riot Games, for example, spun 10 permanent franchises off from LoL, each ponying up a minimum of $10 million, to launch the NA LCS last year. The league is bolstered by a $300 million, seven-year deal with BAMTech, the streaming company formed by Major League Baseball in which Walt Disney Company has a stake. That may be a pittance compared with the $1 billion a year the NCAA is getting from CBS/Turner to broadcast college basketball's March Madness tournament. But it certainly indicates an upward trend.

E-sports may be a disruptor to the traditional sports and entertainment industry; however, its embrace by the NBA and other leagues has the hallmarks of classic line extensions and new revenue streams. Team owners believe their investment in e-sports will entice a new generation of fans who will attend an additional slate of games at their arenas; watch teams play, at home and away, on TV or online; and buy merchandise. Silver of the NBA says, "We think there's an opportunity to capture a new kind of fan, one who currently isn't necessarily watching NBA games on television, but is more of a gamer."

ROI, as usual, is top of mind among the various entities and individuals investing in the future of e-sports as a sustainable industry. It's too soon to know if the increasing number of traditional sports team owners who've purchased franchises in embryonic e-sports leagues will see them increase in value over time as their NFL and NBA teams have. Some owners are taking different approaches - by investing in products and services surrounding e-sports. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has a $7 million stake in Unikrn, a startup that lets consumers bet real money and crypto-currency on live e-sports competition. "E-sports is a real industry," he told the website alistdaily.com. "The participation and online viewership numbers speak for themselves. What matters is that people who love e-sports really get into it."

An expanding roster of retired sports stars, including Shaquille O'Neal, Magic Johnson, Alex Rodriguez, Rick Fox, and Michael Strahan, have invested as well. "They're all looking at the data and seeing a massively popular spectator-sport industry that is growing at an alarming rate and has barely scratched the surface in terms of monetization," says Bryce Blum, executive vice president of Catalyst Sports & Media's e-sports division. Not surprisingly, there are millions of venture capital dollars in e-sports, too. Last November, VentureBeat tallied "388 VCs, angels, accelerators, or companies (strategics) that had invested in esports startups."

Rather quickly, and against all expectations, the fundamentals of e-sports becoming a bona fide sport have fallen in place. And the momentum shows no signs of stopping. E-sports has been designated as a medal event for the 2022 Asian Games. There's already talk of having e-sports included in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
PwC Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2018-2022: A comprehensive source of advertising and consumer spending data.
Author Profile:

Bob Woods is a writer based in Madison, Conn., who specializes in sports business topics.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
E-sports evolved from a hobby into an obsession, into a business - and now it is a full-fledged entertainment industry.

# data[].attributes.body
Option 3