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In late May, Riot Games 
announced that it would be introducing a Pro View feature to its syndicated League of Legends broadcasts. Now fully rolled out in key regions including Europe, North America, and China, the tool lets viewers access point-of-view streams for all matches, all for a once-per-split fee.
On a recent episode of the TEO Podcast, Ben Spoont was asked if the concept could be a key future revenue driver for esports as a whole, or if it was merely an experiment. In the Misfits Gaming CEO’s opinion, it is certainly the former. “I think that any esports platform and league should be looking at ways to diversify away from the Twitches and YouTubes of the world.”
Spoont points out that, in traditional sports, media rights increase in value because there are multiple bidders. Looking just at the NFL, you have Fox, CBS, and other networks still vying for the national, Monday Night and Thursday Night football packages. Compounding matters is Amazon and Twitter, which are also now bidding and driving up the value of those rights.
“In gaming, there are really only two big players, and now the third being introduced with Caffeine coming into the mix in the last year,” said Spoont. The 21st Century Fox-backed Caffeine app is a partner of Misfits Gaming and its affiliated Overwatch League team, the Florida Mayhem . However, the top League of Legends competitions in North America and Europe are broadcast only through YouTube and Twitch , with the audience share skewed vastly towards the latter.
The Pro-View product sits separately to these livestreaming platforms, however. Its independent live broadcasts and video on demand (VOD) versions of matches are loaded with game statistics, face camera feeds, and indicators of the player’s mouse/screen movements. Most importantly, purchases of Pro View are split between the viewer’s region and the pro teams competing in it.
“It’s a direct revenue source to the fans, for the league ecosystems,” said Spoont. “Then the other effect is the media rights. The Twitches, YouTubes, and Caffeines of the world have to react, and have to pay more now to make up for that difference.”
https://t.co/CQQ3kRYwO8
This is BIG deal:
1) Incredible product & value for fans
2) Direct support from fans to the leagues they care most about which in turn continues to support the ecosystem and
3) Creates competition and reduced dependency on Twitch et al w our own sandbox— Ben Spoont (@benspoont) May 24, 2019
Only the market will decide whether watching professional LoL players at work is worth the price of admission. To that effect, Riot Games will supply its streaming viewership data—regular broadcasts and Pro View alike—to Nielsen’s Esport24 sponsorship valuation product. The standardization of viewership metrics will be a deciding factor in whether these premium viewing experiences will ease the industry away from exclusive media deals, or take the industry back to the drawing board.
