From the Fortnite challenge on late-night TV to politicians meeting constituents in-game, it’s no secret that gaming has risen to become an incredibly profitable entertainment industry—a trend that has accelerated in the past year as consumers have flocked to online environments for connection.

Just look at esports’ growth: the esports ecosystem is expected to surpass $1 billion in revenue this year, most of which will come from sponsorship and advertising. So, while gaming audiences have historically been difficult to connect with, emerging interest in esports has caught the attention of brands.

This development comes at a time when consumption of traditional sports has waned. So, will esports replace traditional sports completely? Of course not—but the ways that gaming audiences connect and consume could offer a glimpse at broadcast viewing experiences of tomorrow.

Esports Broadcasts Pull Fans into the Game

While esports organize in competitive leagues, they uniquely blend together what happens both in the game and in the arena. Technology like extended reality lets a broadcast drop character models directly in front of the characters who choose them. Meanwhile, commentators may stand beside an augmented reality diorama of the game to show replays in immersive detail. These innovations stand in contrast to watching a physical sport. “Cameras in a sports stadium are still very flat and traditional,” says Geert Eichhorn, Innovation Director at MediaMonks. “What fans want is an environment you can walk around and engage with.”

Traditional sports have long sought ways to make the viewing experience more engaging to audiences at home, though those experiences have largely remained linear. Today’s sports audiences connect through a variety of digital channels to seek new ways of getting closer to the action, and esports audiences are accustomed to interactive viewing experiences delivered through livestreaming channels like Twitch or YouTube. Sports can look toward esports’ innovation to enable more engaging experiences that break down the barriers between the audience and the game—with brands serving as the MVP’s that power these experiences.

Building the Virtual Stadiums of the Future

For esports and traditional sports alike, virtual stadiums set the stage for immersive and interactive viewing experiences. “You have to think: what can we offer in a virtual space—how are we using the third dimension?” says Eichhorn. “You can do more than just recreate a stadium by letting spectators look beyond the fixed angle of a camera.”

What’s more, much like a physical venue, a virtual one opens up unique sponsorship opportunities for brands, whether it’s more measurable and personalized ad targeting or branded stadiums. 

When it comes to consuming videogames within a virtual stadium, APIs are crucial. An API funnels data from the game in and into the viewing platform in real time—for example, the health of each player, their current equipment, whether they’re in a vehicle and more. In-game assets like maps, player models and animations can also translate seamlessly into the viewing environment.

MediaMonks Labs, our R&D team, has experimented with this technology by building their own virtual venue in Mozilla Hubs. Inside, a small group of viewers can meet together to watch a game of Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds both traditionally (a recording on a stream) and through a 3D map that shows each player’s location in real time—a lot like the park map featured in the HBO series Westworld.

Eichhorn explains why the prototype is limited in the in-game data it uses: “Many game developers are guarded with API access to data in an effort to minimize cheating,” he says. “But a brand or creative partner working directly with a developer to virtualize a competition would have access to much more.”

Sports can Take a Page from the Esports Playbook

We’re still a way off from watching a full traditional game at that level of detail. “Volumetric in real time is difficult for live sports, because it takes days to stitch together everything into a 3D file.”  Though some are bridging the gap, like NBA’s games broadcast in Oculus venues, which lets viewers from afar watch together in a virtual environment—albeit from a linear, fixed-camera perspective. 

However limited immersive broadcasting within a virtual venue may remain today, there is a strong potential to fuel entirely new content experiences. “Intel creates replay clips through its True View volumetric capture,” says Nora Henrikkson, Managing Director at MediaMonks. “These clips pause at a key moment to let the viewer look around in 360 degrees. In the future, it would be cool to broaden that experience and put more control in spectators’ hands.” The same technology powers our work with Intel, which uses volumetric augmented reality to let sports enthusiasts watch, rewind and examine athletes’ moves from any angle.

Esports are branching out and following the lead of traditional sports—like franchising teams, organizing in season matches—but traditional sports can likewise learn from their digital counterparts. At the very least, virtual stadiums set the stage for more impactful, engaging and interactive digital experiences that bring people together, a goal shared by both industries. As brands aim to connect with audiences as well, virtualized environments and platforms that level-up the viewing experience offer an opportunity to change the game forever.

A high score in innovation.

Through local shelter-in-place policies and the cancellation of entire professional sporting seasons, COVID-19 has disrupted athletics to the dismay of fans and gym-goers. This is because sports and athletics revolve around community; whether it’s a fitness class you attend regularly or a regional sports team you root for, athletics are as much about gathering and competing with others in addition to one’s own personal development.

With a sudden shift from the field to digital platforms, consumers are craving that sense of connection—and looking for inspiration to get moving while staying at home, often without equipment they’d find at a gym. Below, we look at a couple of ways that sports-focused brands can fill the void and continue to support restless audiences.

Get People Moving Without Leaving the Home

With consumers staying home, it can be difficult to keep active and get proper exercise. Realizing this opportunity, gyms and fitness influencers have retained connection with audiences through fitness-focused livestreams (kind of like the good old days of Richard Simmons workout tapes—who’s also putting workout routines online). Such broadcasts offer a relatively simple way to keep connected with audiences by supporting their need to keep moving.

One brand with a digital advantage here is Nike; the brand had capped off Q4 in APAC with impressive numbers—only about a 5% decrease in sales during the worst of China’s COVID-19 crisis, with 75% of its retail stores closed—thanks to its strong digital ecosystem and network of elite trainers. As part of its “Play Inside” campaign, which offers content, gear and workouts to keep healthy at home, MediaMonks partnered with Nike and Wieden+Kennedy to livestream weekly community workout sessions via YouTube, bringing viewers and fitness fans together.

The livestreams—which are intentionally lo-fi, informal and broadcast from trainers’ homes—make Nike’s existing network of trainers more accessible to audiences, than ever giving them a chance to interact directly. “It’s about people tuning in together. The chat is wild, and there’s a Q&A at the end of each workout,” says Ciaran Woods, EP Experiential & Virtual Solutions at MediaMonks. “There is a sense of community, that we’re in this together and people just want to make it work.”

There’s also value in having a weekly routine for audiences to stick to. “In many conversations, we’re asking ourselves: what does it mean to have an experience online?” says Travis Craw, Executive Producer at MediaMonks. “One of the interesting things about livestreams is having something to put on your calendar and look forward to.”

Despite the casual feel of the livestream, the production remains professional: disinfected equipment including a camera, tripod, lighting and a LiveU (a live video transmitter) are packaged in cardboard, delivered to trainers with zero contact. Because COVID-19 can only survive on a cardboard surface for 24 hours, the trainers set up the equipment the following day.

With foolproof diagrams and stickers added to equipment to show what goes where, this process enables anyone to build a professional livestreaming setup—and during the stream itself, a remote crew enables production by serving questions from the live chat, mixing audio and more. “With live switching and live editing, we’ll see these livestreams look more like how a news or sports broadcast works,” says Craw.

Fuel Competition Through Digital Alternatives

Getting people moving is just one side of tackling sports and athletics within a world of social distancing. Over the past few weeks, there have been a number of interesting ways that sports organizations and resourceful fans have adapted to the new normal: Formula 1 is launching a Virtual Grand Prix series to entertain audiences as they wait for postponed races, and some NBA players have joined fans in NBA 2K20 video game tournaments. Basically, esports is extending outside of its niche—and viewership on Twitch, a livestreaming site that focuses primarily on videogame content, has risen since stay-at-home orders were put in place throughout different regions around the world.

While these digitized competitions offer an interesting alternative now, there’s no permanent replacement for the excitement of entering a stadium, being surrounded by fans and watching a game played right before your eyes. How might sports organizations experiment with emerging digital behaviors today and pay those learnings forward into a post-COVID-19 world?

The Red Bull 3×3 Online Basketball Contest serves as a possible example. We built an arcade-style browser game that lets fans compete in a virtual 3×3 basketball contest, learning about the game format and racking up high scores. The game leans into the fast-paced excitement of 3×3 basketball and fuels a sense of competition online, building excitement for the eventual live tournament.

“A while back, LeBron James said he didn’t want to play without fans present,” says Olivier Koelemij, Managing Director at MediaMonks LA, noting that the reality has changed in the global pandemic. “Whether you fight or embrace that outlook, be creative by leveraging the power of digital platforms.” Koelemij suggests diving head-first into the unique offerings of a given digital platform, and aligning content with user behaviors there.

“Another interesting aspect is the ability to combine channels and platforms to make content more relevant,” he adds. “You want to consider the whole experience journey: from buying a ticket to the lead-up, to the experience itself and the aftercare.”

Critical to tailoring such an experience is having the data needed to engage at the right place and time, as well as an understanding of what makes a given platform unique. By considering what sets one digital medium apart from another and why fans gather there, brands can apply those learnings and discover new ways to engage with customers through value-added experiences.

A focus on customer obsession is key to delivering assistive digital experiences.