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In less than 10 years, esports have turned into a global phenomenon with a large following that rivals the audience size of popular established sports. This has resulted in a massive influx of esports sponsors. However, because it appeared and evolved so rapidly, sponsors have no idea of what esports really are nor of what risks they may face. Ergo, this research aimed to determine what issues are being caused by the infancy of the esports industry that is threatening sponsors. Hence, this exploratory research used a convergent-parallel mixed method with equal status. Empirical data was obtained through interviews with 22 experts in esports sponsoring and the application of a survey to 5,638 esports fans. Quantitative data was analysed with SPSS 25 and qualitative data with NVIVO 10. The results showed that the majority of experts considered that the problems associated with the infancy of the esports industry are a risk to esports sponsors and almost all esports fans reckon that the competitive gaming market has infancy-related issues to solve. Esports are not like general sports, so sponsors must holistically study this industry to mitigate the dangers of suffering from the problems of this new and unknown market.

In less than 10 years, esports have turned into a global phenomenon with a large following that rivals the audience size of popular established sports. This has resulted in a massive influx of esports sponsors. However, because it appeared and evolved so rapidly, sponsors have no idea of what esports really are nor of what risks they may face. Ergo, this research aimed to determine what issues are being caused by the infancy of the esports industry that is threatening sponsors. Hence, this exploratory research used a convergent-parallel mixed method with equal status. Empirical data was obtained through interviews with 22 experts in esports sponsoring and the application of a survey to 5,638 esports fans. Quantitative data was analysed with SPSS 25 and qualitative data with NVIVO 10. The results showed that the majority of experts considered that the problems associated with the infancy of the esports industry are a risk to esports sponsors and almost all esports fans reckon that the competitive gaming market has infancy-related issues to solve. Esports are not like general sports, so sponsors must holistically study this industry to mitigate the dangers of suffering from the problems of this new and unknown market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]