It's more pop concert than sporting event – think enormous screens, elaborate lighting and hanging LED displays – but it could be the secret weapon to help the AFL lure millennials into its orbit.Professional video gaming, known as eSports, is already a $1.2 billion global industry with an annual audience of 239 million people mostly in the elusive 14-to-34-year age group.
Now the AFL is preparing to enter the burgeoning field in a bold bid to broaden the exposure of its brand and boost sponsorship revenue.
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The league is keen on running an eSports tournament at Etihad Stadium, which it assumed ownership of last October, and wants AFL clubs to sponsor or create their own eSports teams, as some have with AFL Women's and Super Netball.
Forget about crepe paper banners, kitsch theme songs and athletes covered in oil.
eSports is millennials playing high-stake video games spurred on by thousands of cheering fans and the prospect of millions in sponsorship, prizemoney and endorsements.
"eSports events sell out," Darren Birch, the AFL's growth, digital and audiences general manager told Fairfax Media. "They are amazing live events.
"There are more screens, more activities going on, more lights, more LED displays. Some of the tournaments I have seen show that eSports is more concert-like than sport-like, but that's what appeals to that younger audience.
"All of these things make the experience bigger and bolder than your average sport."
![An eSports tournament plays to a big crowd in California last year. The AFL wants to attract millennials to its brand ...](/web/20170505062042im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/x/b/k/l/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvwixm.png/1493739982066.jpg)
Put simply, eSports is competitive video-gaming. Tournaments are played online, sometimes in stadiums, where professional teams with professional players battle each other in video games such as League of Legends, Call of Duty and FIFA.
Australia has eight top-tier professional teams with hundreds of semi-professional and amateur outfits below them. The industry here, according to team bosses who spoke to Fairfax Media, is on the tipping point of becoming more mainstream as it is in the US, Europe and Asia.
![Keyboard warriors: These are the new stadium superstars.](/web/20170505062042im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/x/b/k/y/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvwixm.png/1493739982066.jpg)
The AFL is aiming to apply its expertise in running an elite sporting competition to eSports. The league has been inspired by overseas sporting clubs such as soccer's Paris Saint-Germain and FC Schalke 04 and the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers, who own eSports teams.
In PSG's case, the eSports players wear the club's blue, white and red colours and compete under the PSG badge. Other sporting clubs have more traditional sponsorship partnerships with eSports teams.
![eSports is sometimes played in stadiums. Here, teams compete against each other playing 'Counter-Strike: Global ...](/web/20170505062042im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/0/3/6/s/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvwixm.png/1493739982066.jpg)
Birch recently attended an eSports conference in the US and this weekend will be in Sydney for the Australian debut of the world-renowned Intel Extreme Masters eSports tournament. It will be held at the 21,000 seat capacity Qudos Bank Arena and offers $260,000 in prizemoney.
Birch said the AFL wanted to use eSports to put its brand and its clubs' brands in front of millennials in order to expand audiences and sponsorship revenue.
"eSports is very strong in the millennial area, so for us it is about diverse exposure to that audience. That's no different to AFLW where we became more relevant to a female audience.
"Whether that translates into football is somewhat relevant but also not totally relevant. We want AFL, through eSports, to have the ability to generate a broader appeal for clubs and be able to bring more sponsors, revenue and consumption of your brand – whether that's a live footy event or a live eSports event."
Some consider eSports a sport, some don't. Birch points out that US colleges hand athletic scholarships to budding eSports professionals and that the world famous IMG Academy in Florida tests eSports professionals just like athletes.
Fairfax Media understands this isn't the first time the AFL world, or the Australian mainstream sporting world, has intersected with the eSports industry.
Riot Games - the global gaming giant that makes the wildly popular video game League of Legends - approached former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou and current North Melbourne chairman Ben Buckley to invest, via their business, in an Australian eSports team.
Demetriou is the chairman and Buckley the chief executive of sports technology business Beyond Boundaries Global. Both have a stake in the business. Also recently, NRL team the New Zealand Warriors have been in talks with some of Australia's top professional eSports teams to discuss possible sponsorship or investment opportunities. Industry sources said other AFL clubs have made similar inquiries.