Nielsen just announced that the trusted data and insight company has officially opened up a eSports division.
The reasoning behind this venture is to support key stakeholders who have invested in the rapidly evolving world of eSports. Nielsen pledges to provide sponsorship valuation, fan insights, industry research, and consulting services to the rights holders, ensuring a stable and efficient means of managing this still emerging market.
According to Nielsen eSports research, experts have agreed that the eSports market is booming and that any rapidly growing market needs a good backing in terms of market research, which is why the leading market research firm has opted to open up a service dedicated to eSports.
“There’s a high demand for reliable, independent measurement of value in eSports,” said Howard Appelbaum, President, Nielsen Entertainment. “We’re excited to enhance our client offerings and provide the industry with solutions that will help guide and optimize investment decisions in this exciting, growing space.”
By researching the need for a reliable and efficient means of consistent sponsorship evaluation, Nielsen has developed eSport24, a syndicated sponsorship tracking service for eSports tournaments, which is a service that measures the brand exposure within eSport tournaments. Additionally, the service also looks into details such as geographical location, event formats, and types of titles when evaluating data. The gleaned content is invaluable to not only market researchers, but also to advertisers, sponsors, and brands.
Recently, playoff rounds of major 2017 eSport tournaments have yielded up to $17 million in sponsorship value as measured by the eSport24 service. In other words, this data emphasizes the need for a standard metric system which can aid industry players in understanding the emerging eSports future.
“Nielsen has done a stellar job establishing itself as a popular and respected source for data, making its foray into the eSports industry an exciting endeavour,” said Kristen Salvatore, VP/Commercial Director, eSports and Event Sponsorships Twitch. “With Twitch being an online epicentre for the live viewing of eSports content, Nielsen’s research will tie directly to our community and make our participation in the advisory board a natural fit.”
In essence, having a strong backing from Nielsen is paramount in not only having metrics of valuable market research, but also in helping to further legitimize the still yet budding world of eSports.