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1980.gg: the Linktree for Esports
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Market Analysis

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Market Overview

The aim of the market overview is to provide a current snapshot of the industry in order to better understand it. Do teams, players and gaming influencers have a website? Do they use a ‘link-in-bio’ tool? What are the links in their profiles on social media?
I reviewed dozens of teams, players and streamers. I started by checking Pro Gaming Teams and their digital presence:
Pro Gaming Teams
5
Name
Country / Region
Has a Website?
Link in Bio Tool
Website Link
Website Description
Mobile First
Twitter
Twitter Link in Bio
Instagram
IG Link in Bio
Twitch
Youtube
No results from filter

Some learning from the pro team data:

Websites are still a thing for pro esports teams, they all have one...
...But teams don’t seem to invest a lot on their website: some are outdated, others are quite simple.
I’m surprised by the prominence of the shopping experience of team apparels. Except the Indian team all of them have a shop. The website strategy is sometimes only focused on a shop, or the shop is in the front of the website. I noticed Shopify as the website technology provider a few times.
Vitality links their shop in their social media. It’s their digital gateway. In the shop footer, not easy to find, there is the “traditional” website link with the label “Institutional website”. I’m happy to have found this mention: team website seems to be needed for communication to partner, sponsor, press, investor (and “boomer”...)
All teams have Twitter, Instagram and Youtube accounts. As well as a Twitch account but with three different strategies: a Twitch “User” profile, or a Twitch “Team” profile, or both.
6 teams are using a ‘link-in-bio’ tool on 23 teams in this list = 26%. Do the other teams don’t know this kind of tool or don’t they see the value?
Astralis is using a ‘link-in-bio’ tool called Linkfire which is targeting musicians and the music market. A song is effectively promoted on their Linkfire landing page.
Only NRG eSports is using their ‘link-in-bio’ tool on both Twitter and Instagram. The 5 others teams are using their link on only one of the two social networks.

Then, what about the pro players:
Pro Player
5
Name
Country / Region
Source
Has a Website?
Link in Bio Tool
Website Link
Website Description
Mobile First
Twitter
Twitter Link in Bio
Instagram
IG Link in Bio
Twitch
Youtube
Discord
9
Bwipo
Belgium
Fnatic LOL
(Fnatic Shop)
(Fnatic Shop)
12
Clem
France
Team Liquid SC2
No results from filter
Source: players of top teams found here

Some learning from the pro player data:

None of the pro players have a website. Social media won, sorry web agencies...
All pro players have Twitter and Twitch accounts, a lot an Instagram one. Pro players are clearly also (part) streamers.
No ‘link-in-bio’ tools but their Instagram or Twitch is linked on Twitter, and Twitter or Twitch on Instagram. They try to grow their social media audience. Maybe an opportunity for me to create a solution to link their social media with other gaming oriented features (hardware, team infos, etc).
Fnatic gives short URLs to all of their players. They are redirecting to the Fnatic shop but each URL includes the player nickname, so they track the traffic coming from each of their players. Clever!

Let’s continue with the top streamers:
Top Streamer
5
Name
Country / Region
Source
Has a Website?
Link in Bio Tool
Website Link
Website Description
Mobile First
Twitter
Twitter Link in Bio
Instagram
IG Link in Bio
Twitch
Youtube
No results from filter

Some learning from the top streamer data:

Some top streamers have a website, notably the French ones (more info why below) but it’s clearly not a mandatory asset.
My supposition why French streamers are more willing to have a website: before the solo streamer trend, we used to have a lot of gaming WebTV in France (Millenium, Ogaming, Eclypsia, JVTV etc) partly created by classical web media. At that time, the digital presence was built around a website. So in France for a top streamer competing with the still existing WebTVs, it’s kind of obvious to have a website. The french audience may expect that.
All websites are really simple, promoting streamer merchandising shops and their Twitch embed.
All top streamers have Twitter, Instagram and Youtube accounts. Twitter is the most prominent social network (in addition to Twitch of course because I listed here only Twitch streamers). I had to check on Google to find some Instagram accounts who are not directly linked on the Twitch or Twitter profiles.
No streamers here are using a ‘link-in-bio’ tool which really surprises me because they all try to link their different social accounts. Some Twitter bios are encumbered by their other social links (one or two in the description, another in the link).
Maybe they are just not aware of this kind of tool? A tool which provides a simple website / landing page, plus a way to link all their social networks seems to be a nice addition in their digital strategy.

We now have an idea of how top teams, players and streamers communicate on the internet and the social networks. Then, you can find my review of the long tail of the market: amateur teams and streamers who are obviously the most numerous and so my main targets.
Amateur Team
5
Name
Country / Region
Source
Has a Website?
Link in Bio Tool
Website Link
Website Description
Mobile First
Twitter
Twitter Link in Bio
Instagram
IG Link in Bio
Twitch
Youtube
Discord
3
Age d’Or
France
ESL PUBGM Mobile Tournament
5
Atlantes eSports
Mexico
ESEA (Intermediate league)
6
Chill Town
Canada
ESEA (Intermediate league)
7
Cryptova
ESEA
ESEA (Intermediate league)
8
Deftfox
Germany
ESEA (Intermediate league)
9
DOGO Clan
Italy
ESL R6 PS4 Italy League
11
eXploitgg
Portugal
ESEA (Intermediate league)
A merch shop.
13
GenOne
France
ESEA (Intermediate league)
16
Holly Molly
USA
ESEA (Intermediate league)
17
HYVAMIELI
Finland
ESEA (Intermediate league)
18
Insilio
Russia
ESEA (Intermediate league)
24
Nasty.Esports
Italy
ESL R6 PS4 Italy League
25
NG Esports
Thailand
ESEA (Asia Open)
27
ntoX
USA
ESEA (Intermediate league)
28
Odyssey
USA
ESEA (Intermediate league)
35
Sanguine SGN Phoenix
Australia
ESL Valorant Tournament
A simple shop with some static pages.
36
SAW
Portugal
ESEA (Premier League)
A classical team website: players, competitions, news, partners, an a shop section.
37
Spirit of Amiga
Denmark
ESEA (Intermediate league)
A classical team website: players, competitions. Also a clothing shop.
38
Team Zeta
UK
ESEA (Intermediate league)
39
TGJ ESPORTS
France
ESEA (Intermediate league)
No results from filter
Sources: I have checked dozens of team profiles on ESEA, ESL, Challengermode and Toornament (my brain may explode!)

Some learning from the amateur team data:

A lot of team profiles on the gaming platforms have no websites or social networks at all. I didn’t add in this list all the teams without anything I’ve found.
The more professionalized is a team the more it has a website and all the social networks like the pro teams. The first teams in the main (premier) league on ESEA are clearly semi-professionals.
Mobile teams seem less structured: no websites or social networks at all on their ESL profile.
I found Linktree links 🎉 on some social network links of CSGO teams!
Twitter is the most common social network with Discord. I added a Discord column after seeing its popularity.

At the same time as amateur teams, I reviewed their players:
No officiel websites.
Some social accounts published, mainly Twitter and Twitch.
No ‘link-in-bio” tools as they don’t really manage their online presence.

Finally, I checked amateur streamers:
Amateur Streamer
5
Name
Country / Region
Source
Has a Website?
Link in Bio Tool
Website Link
Website Description
Mobile First
Twitter
Twitter Link in Bio
Instagram
IG Link in Bio
Twitch
Youtube
Discord
No results from filter
Sources: I browsed different game categories on Twitch and Youtube

Some learning from the amateur streamer data:

I put an early stop of my research on amateur streamers because the pattern is clear: they use Twitch or Youtube as their landing page and they link their streaming page in their social networks.
Twitch allows to link all your social networks in your profile, and you can configure content blocks under your stream. It’s a really nice feature easy to use, open to customization by uploading images. Youtube doesn’t offer this feature but you can link your other social networks.
Almost no websites here.

No further conclusions for now, I did after that a to evaluate the competitors. You can also go back to the main page of this step: .

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