The esports industry has grown exponentially, bursting into the mainstream scene recently. Due to its significant growth in recent years, several athletes and celebrities are looking at competitive virtual games as a new investment project.
One of the main reasons is due to its attractiveness and profit potential, as although it has hit the mainstream sector, esports is still growing at a rapid rate. It is estimated that, by 2023, the industry's viewership will register a whopping 646 million and also be an estimated $1.5billion dollar industry.
So why wouldn't you want to get your hands on it? We'll take a look at 10 iconic athletes and celebrities that have invested in this fast growing industry.
However, aXiomatic Gaming are no underdogs when it comes to esports tournaments as the company owns world renowned team - Team Liquid - which are worth over $200million, according to Forbes.
aXiomatic are also able to boast another NBA Legend in their investment team in Magic Johnson. If only we could of seen these two legends pair up on the court and not just through an esports investment.
Our first celebrity away from sports on our list. World famous rapper Drake invested in not one but two esports teams. Drake's first venture in esports came about after his cameo in several Twitch streams - most notably with Tyler 'Ninja' Blevins in Fortnite. This led the Canadian born rapper to gain co-ownership of popular esports team '100 Thieves', an organisation founded by retired Call of Duty player Matt "Nadeshot" Haag. His interest in esports did not stop here as he also decided to invest in 'Players' Lounge' - a startup that allows players to match up against eachother depending on their skill and play for money.
Gen.G also have two-time NBA Champion, Chris Bosh, supporting their company efforts.
Imagine a team consisting of Shaq, Marshawn Lynch, Jennifer Lopez and Tiesto. Quite a strange mix right? Fortunately these are the types of partnerships we can see in the esports industry and they'll seem completely fine. These stars are all involved with the American professional esports organisation called NRG Esports. The organisation has a wide variety of rosters spanning games such as Apex Legends, CoD, Fortnite, Hearthstone and Overwatch, among others.
Who other than to claim number one spot but the self-proclaimed God himself - Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The list is not a specifically ranked list but it only seemed fitting to put Zlatan as number one. Ibrahimovic invested into an esports tournament platform called Challengermode. The Swedish esports platform received around $12million from investment groups led by Zlatan and also Alibaba. The aim of Challengermode is to help brands and creators to engage their target audiences as well as gain monetisation through the platform.
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