Esports Business – 5 Things To Know (2020)

What is an esports business?

Esports is playing electronic games for money. You would usually compete with other people in organized tournaments.

For the purposes of this site, we’re only interested in esports that are played online (ie. not in big arenas packed with spectators).

Esports is one of 19 types of online business and considered a Level X online business, according to our framework.

6 Levels and 19 Types of Online Business
Level 1 = Novice

Okay for side income or beer money, but hard to earn a living.

GetPaidTo
Contests

Level 2 = Intermediate

Best for earning a living online when you’re starting out, but hard to scale.

Remote Job
Freelance

Level 3 = Advanced

Easier to scale and higher income potential, but you usually need significant investment of time and/or money upfront.

Agency
Referral
Resale

Level 4 = Superior

Even more scalable and even higher income potential, but also more complex / difficult / expensive.

Authority
Digital Product

Level 5 = Distinguished

Most complex / difficult / expensive, but the rewards here can be massive.

Physical Product
Cloud Service
Marketplace
Social Network

Level X = Wildcard

These are the misfits. Many aren’t even considered businesses in the traditional sense, but they are all ways to make money online. You typically need a lot of time, money, or luck to succeed with anything here.

Trading
Investing
Esports
Betting
Gambling
Multi-Level Marketing









How can you make money online with esports?

Here are the legit ways I’ve found to make money online with esports…

Online Video Game Tournaments

Will Wierzba has earned quite a bit of money online playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive…

Will "Rush" WierzbaProfessional Gamer $15,300 average monthly winnings



Playing Poker Online

Poker pros like João Vieira seem well capable of winning big in online tournaments…

João VieiraProfessional Poker Player $109,603 prize money from 3 weeks of online poker



Playing Chess Online

Chess grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura has done nicely playing his game online…

Hikaru NakamuraChess Grandmaster $35,000+ estimated monthly revenue