People often speak about pro-gaming; and almost in the same sentence we almost always hear about sponsors and that we need more of them to make pro-gaming a reality of the future.

SPONSORSHIP, WHY?

So, why should a company be interested in sponsoring a team, an event, a website, a league, etc? That is really the question that needs answering before eSports can take off into the next level. Let me start this way; everybody agrees that eSports has a bright future ahead of it. The problem is that far too few understand what it takes to actually score a major sponsorship deal.

Regular comments I hear from the top teams are: “We are one of the best teams in the world, there should be a thousand companies interested in sponsoring us” or “That company should be glad that I wear their T-shirt on this LAN, they only paid for the trip here”. Well, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!

There also seems to be a misconception about how fast a sponsorship deal can be handled. Even though in online gaming a month seems like a very long time it’s in the business world just one month of a yearly budget. Why should they change their already set plan for the year because a 20 year old tells them how good his team is at Counter-Strike? And if they actually do change their plan, I can promise you it will NOT take one month.

BACK TO THE QUESTION - “WHY”?

Well, first of all, because they are looking for stability. Sponsorship is about getting association of their brand name with a specific target group, this being you, the gamers. To succeed in getting a monetary sponsorship deal you must convince the company that they will get the promised marketing from the deal. A sponsorship deal is also seldom a one-time affair since the company is looking for a way to associate itself with the partner.

An example: ESL has been around for five years now (if I'm not wrong); they can prove that they are a stable organization that has succeeded in what has been set out to do. ESL has managed to persuade sponsors that they can get what they expect out of a sponsorship deal with that organization and they can expect that it will last more than just one week.

SO, HOW IS THE REST OF THE SCENE HANDLING THIS?

Well to start with, players switch teams like they change underwear. Teams split up in the middle of sponsorship deals because players have found another team with better sponsors. A team is also a very loose foundation, 99% of all teams today are just people gathered around a made up name. As a matter of fact, this is creating all kinds of problems for the organizers of events and leagues. Most online leagues don’t last more than a season or two because clans quit and split, many teams don’t even show up at events, as promised, etc.

A STEADY ANS SECURE STAGE FOR A SPONSORS TO ENTER, OR PERHAPS NOT?

What do teams have to do in order to find a real sponsor? Of course, I’m not talking about getting a mouse for each player but a major sponsor, acquiring more stability. Perhaps form a company from the clan/team, and create contracts for each player. Clans have to stop quitting, or the sponsors will shy away from the eSport market. Some German teams have already started dragging other teams into a more structured environment. But again the way it happens does not favour the industry it self. There are in fact several big companies, which are interested in the market, but they hear “Clan ABC is no more” or “The super players 123 leave clan D for clan F”. They reconsider why they actually should put their money into something as risky as this, even though they get revenues from it.

I’ll say it again, just for the sake of it. A sponsor is looking for stability, and if he can’t find it in you he will put his money somewhere else.

To continue answering the question I’ll make a well-known statement. MONEY RULES!

What do I mean? Well, the only reason for a company to enter a sponsorship deal is to get more money out of it than they invest. Yeah, right you think, what about the companies that put money into aid and to charity, they can’t possible do it to earn more money out of it. Well, sorry to disappoint you but each time you see a sponsorship deal of that sort you will find a ton of press releases stating how good the company is and that they do it for the cause, both from the company and the beneficiary. This strengthens the company’s profile and you get a more positive association about it, that way they sell more.

The same applies to sponsors of other sports. Let’s take football as an example (soccer that is for you Americans who think football is something you do running with a ball in your hands) where sponsorship is part of the daily life of each football team and event organizer. Those football teams are very good at profiling their sponsors by all possible means to make sponsors get associated with the club. So each time that club is mentioned, you think of the sponsor. On some occasions the clubs even change their names to further strengthen the image of a sponsor.

BACK TO ESPORTS, HOW DOES THIS APPLY?

Well first of all, you have to answer the question, “how can you give a company the publicity needed for that company to earn more money from the sponsorship deal than they actually put in?” If you cannot answer that question before going to a company, spare both yours and their time and do something more constructive with it, like rub your bellybutton.

It all comes down to what you have to offer them, because there are not many companies out there that actually know about something called a clan, and they know even less about how to earn money out of a sponsorship deal with one.

I’ll give an example once again; let’s say we have a big graphic card producer. What would that company be interested in? Can it be selling more graphic cards, and taking market shares from its competitors? Yes, most likely. It is obvious that the company makes its revenues from gamers and therefore should be an excellent sponsor of clans and such. But I can promise you that the company won’t know how you could help them with their goal, and even if they do, they will not tell you because that would put them into a worse negotiation position. They want as much out of you as possible for as less as possible.

SO, WHAT CAN YOU OFFER A SPONSOR?

This is of course different in each case and you have to prepare yourself prior to every meeting with a potential sponsor. Let’s use again the familiar quote “We are one of the best teams in the world, there should be a thousand companies interested in sponsoring us”. Yes, there perhaps are a thousand companies interested in sponsoring you, but what can you offer them in return? They will not settle for just giving you the money.

You have to find as many ways as possible to reach the community with your message. The more people you can reach when your team is mentioned, the more likely it is that you can strike a good sponsorship deal. It is not enough to just be the best, because a sponsor will more likely sponsor a less good team with better understanding of marketing and PR.

If you can come to a potential sponsor and say: “Our team will play 10 events this year and 4 online leagues. Throughout those events, we shall constantly make sure that our team gets mentioned in all reports from the events; we shall always mention you in all interviews and play in T-Shirts, which clearly show your brand name. We shall also issue press releases on a regular basis in which you are mentioned etc. All in all we shall give you over 5 million exposures throughout our different activities. And finally, we haven’t changed team members for the last 4 month and have contracts for the rest of the year with the players.” Then you will most likely be in a VERY good position to strike major sponsorship deals.

If you come to them, like 99% of all the teams and event organizers do today and say “Hey, we are a Counter-strike team that have a goal to go to WCG. We want $5000 from you to do it” or “Hey, we’re having an event with 100 players attending, we want 100 graphic cards” and then assume they will accept this as a good deal, you will most likely never get a sponsor. This is what usually happens each and every day.

It comes down to having a very good roadmap on what your team is to accomplish in the next year, and how much exposure you will get by it. The more events and happenings you attend to, the more often you are in the spotlights, the happier a sponsor will be.

A sponsor will not come to you and hand you the money. The first contact will most likely have to come from you and then you have to convince them that you can take care of the money and give them a good return of invest (ROI). It will not take one month to achieve it either and you will have to work real hard for it.

THE VERY SHORT ANSWER TO THE QUESTION IS:

A sponsor wants publicity, they want their brand name to have a very positive association, they want stability and assurances and finally they WANT to earn more money than they put in.

You need to have a plan on how to give them that!

If more teams and organizers could understand these basic principles of sponsoring the eSport market would grow A LOT faster into the sport of the future.