Sponsors are wising up to deals with esports teams and adjusting spending accordingly

Esports sponsorship is in a bind. Gone are the gold-rush days of 2017-2020, where brands jumped at ambitious pitches from teams that believed their own hype.

Click here to read the story at digiday.com.

Discussion Questions:

1. What is sponsorship?
2. How do businesses and brands determine which sports and entertainment properties to sponsor?
3. What types of businesses or brands might be interested in sponsoring esports teams and events?
4. What might an esports sponsorship look like?
5. What is ROI?
6. What types of things determine ROI from a sponsorship perspective?
7. According to this story, sponsors haven’t been seeing the ROI on esports sponsorship that they expected. Why might that be?
8. How has that impacted esports sponsorship as a whole?
9. What is price?
10. How do you think sports and entertainment properties determine sponsorship price?
11. According to this story, how have esports player salaries impacted sponsorship price?
12. What do you think the esports industry can do to try to win back more sponsorship deals? Be prepared to discuss your answers in class.