Alberta's 1st esports strategy sets out path to win in a growing industry

Competitive video gaming is now a billion-dollar industry and a new strategy has outlined how Alberta can get a piece of the esports pie.

The Alberta Esports Strategy was released Thursday, outlining what Alberta can do and what it can gain from setting itself up as a hub for esports. The report estimates that in 2019, global revenue was $1.1 billion with a year-over-year growth rate of around 15 per cent.

The report was not commissioned by the provincial government. A group of tourism and economic development organizations in Edmonton and Calgary worked in partnership with consulting firm Deloitte to craft the strategy — a guiding document to develop the scene across the province.

Here's just some of what's in the 100-page document.

What is esports?

Esports — a portmanteau of electronic sports — is an umbrella term for competitive video gaming. It can apply to amateur tournaments or professional play, where top-tier talent goes head-to-head for prizes in high-skill games.

Esports has grown globally as an industry in the last decade with organized bouts filling stadiums and drawing millions of viewers in-person and online. League of Legends, a popular team battle arena game, drew in just under 100 million unique viewers for its 2019 world championship final — numbers comparable to the Super Bowl.

Meanwhile, grassroots leagues at the school and collegiate level have also flourished. The report notes the average age of fans is lower than for major sports leagues. 

The non-profit Alberta Esports Association (AESA) has been championing the sport in the province since the association's inception in 2020. 

"What we do is we bring together all those sort of fragmented markets and communities and give them an opportunity to scale," Ryan Coutts, partnership specialist at AESA, said in an interview.

He said the Alberta Esports Strategy essentially provides a roadmap for scaling up those efforts in concert with established economic organizations.

"The strategy is really the tool that's going to help us bridge that gap between the grassroots scene that we have here, and really sort of a flourishing esports industry and ecosystem here in the province," he said.

What does Alberta have to gain?

Esports presents an opportunity for economic development both directly and indirectly.

One achievable short-term goal is to bolster tourism through local, provincial and international events. The strategy offers the case study of the 2019 League of Legends summer finals, which contributed around $5.5 million to the Detroit economy.

Dan St. Pierre, director of strategic communications and partnerships with Explore Edmonton, said the tourism development agency sees esports as a new avenue to bring people to the city.

"For us, when we see the growth potential of esports, generally, and we look at the number of people who are actually physically going to tournaments, and championships and those kinds of things, I think we saw an opportunity to drive additional visitation into the city," he said in an interview.

St. Pierre said the tourism agency is always seeking out ways to bring events into the city that align with its strength – in this case, the digital creative sector as Edmonton is host to several game developers including BioWare. 

The strategy also presents esports as a means to develop and retain talent for players and professionals within the industry.

Madison Côté, senior manager of business development for AI and tech with Edmonton Global, said local teams are already ranking globally.

"This is a normal everyday hobby for some people, but it can be fully a career and that's really what we want to show off," she said. 

Developing the educational and post-secondary ecosystem can enable Albertans to pursue esports careers and enables post-secondaries to attract talent, according to the report.

Finally, the strategy outlines how esports can help enhance the innovation economy in the long-term, noting that it is part of several industries, including software publishers, data processing and hosting, information services and arts, entertainment and recreation. 

"Esports is not a silver bullet, nor is it a quick return," reads the report's conclusion.

"However, executed correctly, esports can enable organizations and individuals to become more economically contributive, and grow a sustainable, flourishing ecosystem that has ripple effect benefits felt across the province."

Where does Alberta go from here?

The aspirations outlined follow a timeline of up to 10 years, with different pathways being realized at different times.

Near-term initiatives include establishing relationships with esports event hosts and bidding for high-profile events. It also suggests generating a working group to explore industry overlaps and trends in emerging technologies like virtual reality. 

The strategy notes the province has a strong grassroots community, while places to play, the talent presence and pipeline and proper partners are developing areas.

Coutts said dealing with copyrights and the industry's newness not yet fully recognized in policy and practice are likely to be obstacles.

But the AESA executive said esports has a lot to offer Albertans.

"It's not just about people playing video games. 

"It's about people having a shared interest, and the opportunity that that can create having a community – that economic and social impact, that's the most important thing."