The experimental exploration game “POOLS” is now available for PC via Steam
Press release:
Jyväskylä, Finland –April 30, 2024.
The Jyväskylä-based (Finland) indie games develop[...]
For many years, online gaming was considered a waste of time by many. But, times are changing. Professional gaming is prospering and gaining recognition around the world.
Today, the esports industry is worth $1 billion, and its popularity is still on the rise. Last year, the League of Legends World Championship semi-finals was watched live by 3.9 million people. So, it’s only fair to ask: will esports ever become part of the Olympics?
If you’re an esports fan, the answer will excite you, because it has been confirmed that the 2024 Paris Olympics will include an esports demonstration.
Organizers of the Olympics announced that virtual and connected sports events will run before and alongside the real sporting events. The idea is to engage spectators leading up to the live games. Individual sports are supposed to have online versions that should allow fans and spectators to compete against real athletes on the field.
Some organizations such as World Sailing who already provide their virtual regatta, have proposed a version of their sailing contests. Also, other organizations such as the National Basketball Organization and the English Premier League are keen on joining the trend, however, they haven’t started anything officially yet.
We gave you a little bit of insight into what the future might hold for e-games in the 2024 Paris summer Olympics. Now, we will investigate further the possibilities and problems e-games might face on their path to the podium.
The 2018 Asian Games were a huge success. However, games with violence received some harsh criticism. A few months after the Asian Games, IOC president Thomas Bach stated that the Olympic games program was unable to include games promoting violence and/or discrimination. He also stated that these games oppose the traditional Olympic values so they were not accepted.
Although violent sports such as Boxing and Fencing were used as a contra argument, Bach defended his viewpoint by stating that every Olympic combat sport originates in real fighting among people. However, today’s combat sports are civilized and don’t promote killing people.
Most e-games, on the other hand, feature violence and killing, and therefore cannot be brought in line with civilized sports and Olympic values. Because of this, e-games may have to take an alternative path for the Olympic and Asian Games in 2024 and 2022.
E-games might have a bright future at the Olympics, but it seems there won’t be games that attract many crowds. Alisports CEO Zhang Dazhong spoke about how the 2022 Asian Games will probably navigate towards more traditional sports titles. The Asian Games 2022 should have titles like Pro-Evolution soccer (2018).
Zhang Dazhong also stated that esports should be about sports and not entertainment or the honor of representing your country. The idea that the 2020 Asian Games should lean on more sports-based esports, could possibly pave the way for them to be in the Olympics in the future.
The Olympic Games are a huge event and in 2001 the International Olympic Committee established the Olympic Broadcasting Service, which is the indefinite host of the Olympics.
The OBS was created to prevent the logistical chaos of different broadcasters around the world covering the same events with their camera crews.
The IOC grants large networks the ability to buy rights, therefore, they are able to air the Olympics on their platforms. This also allows networks to add their commentary and coverage on top of the footage that the OBS supplies them with.
Everyone is given the same camera feeds, however, the rights holders can supply their own graphics, commentary, and post-match interviews, as long as they follow the regulations of the Olympic charter.
As we can see, esports will enter the Olympics one way or another in the near future. This undeniable fact also suggests that we could also be betting on esports at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Due to the Coronavirus, most sports events have been canceled or postponed, so esports are becoming an alternative for fans and bettors around the world.
Because of this, esports betting is gaining popularity every day. Believe it or not, esports betting has a faster growth rate than esports as a whole, and so it has sparked great interest in investors and entrepreneurs.
Due to the huge success of esports competitions such as the Asian Games 2019, and the current Coronavirus crisis, investors have a notion that there’s never going to be a better time for investing in esports betting. As esports betting becomes more professional and legitimate and gains more fans every day, betting operators have the chance to create a strong core community.
Will there be esports betting in future Olympic games? We still don’t know. However, we do know that the trend is gaining popularity every day and certainly has a bright future.
As we can see, including esports in the Olympics isn’t something that will happen overnight. It is a slow process of convincing people that online gaming is also a sport. Traditional sports games will probably be one of the first esports games to be allowed, and even for them, the process will be lengthy and complicated.
For now, games like Counter-Strike, and League of Legends won’t be seen at the Olympics in the near future. Excluding games involving violence is the core policy of the IOC, so e-games won’t have the massive popularity that they normally do.
What we do know is that the first steps have been taken towards bringing e-games to the Olympics. We just need to be patient and know that the process will take time.
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