1.1 Introduction

The e-sport (electronic sports) characterizes the practice on the Internet of a video game alone or in a team via a computer or a video game console (especially Xbox and Playstation). Electronic sport appeared in the 1980s but the sector has now become more professional with major tournaments organized and recognized worldwide such as the Esports World Convention (ESWC), Major League Gaming (MLG) or Cyberathlete Professional League, to name only the best-known.

The financing of professional e-sport is carried out by the backers and brands as well as revenues from the streaming of the competitions. The e-sport ecosystem includes many stakeholders involved which are destined to be interdependent: video game publishers, game console manufacturers, tournament organizers, broadcasters, professional teams and sponsors.

The value creation system in the e-sport market is atypical in that it is based on various sources of revenue: advertising revenue, post-broadcast revenue, sponsorship revenue, etc. The e-sport market therefore has the potential to expand and evolve positively in the coming years, with the advent of the Internet and networked games. In France, many professional players have emerged and this is attracting more and more young customers, generally under 30 years of age.

The French esports market is the third largest in Europe and is expected to follow a strong growth in the coming years. While the French sector is not one of the main ones in the world, it still has some national players that are gaining ground (both nationally and internationally).

1.2 The Global esport market

The global Esports market is expected to follow a strong growth until ****, following a very small decline in **** due to the Covid-** pandemic. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of **.*% between **** and ****, going from $*** million to $*.** billion [***].

Global revenue of the esports market World, ****-****, in millions of ...

1.3 The promising French esports market

With the European Esports market being valued at *** million dollars in ****, the French market was the *rd largest in Europe, behind Sweden and Russia. The French esports market represented *% of the European market, or ** million dollars, in **** [***].

Breakdown of the European esports market Europe, ****, in % Source: ****

The evolution of the sector ...

1.4 The impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic

While some presume the pandemic was a huge boost for esports, this is not necessarily the case. The misconception is understandable; esports was a key pastime for many consumers when lockdowns began, and traditional sports seasons were suspended while esports quickly adapted to the new environment and continued. The natural assumption ...

2.1 The growing popularity of esports in France

The number of esports consumers/practitioners in France has grown steadily over the years, increasing from just over * million in **** to *.* million in **** - a **% increase [***].

Consumers/practitioners of esports France, ****-****, in millions of people Source: ****

The *.* million esport consumers/practitioners in **** represented **% of all French internet users aged ** or ...

2.2 The consumers/players of esports

The practitioners and consumers of esports and video games in France can be separated into different categories [***]:

Mainstream players - Players that don't play in competitions and do not have rankings Leisure players - Players that have rankings, but do not play in competitions Amateur players - Players that have rankings ...

2.3 Consumption patterns of French consumers

The esports consumers can be split into different categories depending on the frequency of consumption:

Occasional consumers - less than once a month Regular consumers - between once a week and once a month Frequent consumers - at least once a week

Occasional consumers make up the largest part of the ...

2.4 The video games that consumers viewing on streams

For mainstream players, the most viewed video game through streams is Fortnite, with **% of these players viewing it. For leisure and amateur players, the most popular video game to watch is League of Legends. An important thing to note is how amateur players tend to like to watch multiple games, while ...

2.5 Nintendo as the most popular platform

In ****, *.* million consoles were sold in France - the same amount as in ****. The Nintendo Switch console is the most popular for gaming, with ** of the top ** most sold games being for this platform (***). Behind Nintendo Switch follows the PlayStation *, with * games in the top **. Finishing the list is the Xbox ...

3.1 The wider video game industry

The videogame industry in **** was worth *.* billion euros, up **.*% from ****. The market had been growing steadily since ****, before slight decline in **** [***].

Value of the video game industry France, ****-****, in billions of euros Source: ****

If we breakdown the sector's turnover by the type of system used, we see that the largest ...

3.2 The French esports ecosystem

The French Esports association defines Esports as "any type of practice that enables players to play against each other through video games". Esports practices can be separated according to the objectives of the practitioners [***].

Source: ****

The diagram below shows how the esports ecosystem can be broken down [***].

3.3 Esports competitions and streaming

Esports competitions predominantly took place online in ****, and the Covid-** pandemic helped boost this channel. In fact, **% of competitions took place online, **% took place in both online and physically and only *% occured only physically.

Where esports competitions take place France, ****, in % Source: ****

In regards to the evolution of this, online competitions ...

3.4 The biggest teams and players

While France is not the main country for esports in the world, it is important to highlight some of the main French teams competing in this sector. The biggest French esports team (***) is Vitality, followed by Millenium and Team LDLC. The table below summarises the top French esports teams.

Source: ****

In ...

4.1 The different platforms being used

For esports competitions to be able to take place there needs to be platforms/systems where these games can be played. The main platforms for video games can be seen in the table below.

Source: ****

4.2 The types of vide games being played

In ****, **.* million video games were sold across all platforms in France. The most popular genre for video games in France is action (***) [***].

Distribution of video games sold by genre France, ****, in % Source: ****

In regards to the most popular games, Fifa ** was the leader for the whole market combined (***), while "Animal crossing: ...

4.3 Developments in the industry

In ****, the TV network M* (***) took a minority stake in Glory*Gamers, a French startup platform broadcasting more than *** online tournaments every week.

At the same time ES*, the first French TV channel exclusively dedicated to video games, was launched. Having begun in March ****, ES* broadcasts the current season of the ...

5.1 Regulations

In France, video game competitions have been evolving for a long time without any legal constraints. In order to allow the development of e-sport, it is therefore necessary to give it a legal framework, in particular by ceasing to assimilate it to prohibited gambling and lotteries. Furthermore, a precise definition and ...