SPORTFIVE Esports & Gaming: Looking Back on 10 Years in an Ever-Evolving Industry
Published on
by Jack Milko
As an influential force in the gaming landscape, SPORTFIVE has emerged as a global leader within the industry by navigating a decade of nonstop transformation through strategy and innovation. What began as a bold entry into a fragmented esports ecosystem has evolved into a fully integrated, world‑class gaming group that is trusted by developers, leagues, and brands for its commercial expertise and industry‑defining partnerships.
In this Insight:
SPORTFIVE is proud to stand at the forefront of esports and gaming today in 2026, leveraging its global network and deep market insight to build culturally relevant programs and long‑lasting value across the entire gaming economy.
To celebrate our 10-year anniversary in this ever-evolving space, the SPORTFIVE team will publish an insights article on a monthly basis that will explore different aspects of gaming, further demonstrating our proficiency. Our first edition looks back on the last decade in gaming, and how SPORTFIVE has played a crucial role in shaping it.
From 2016 to 2026
When SPORTFIVE, formerly known as Lagardère Sports, first ventured into esports in 2016, the industry was still fragmented, undervalued by mainstream brands, and quite frankly, it was immature. Many pundits, business leaders, and others mocked esports, with some asking the question, “Why would anyone want to watch someone else play a video game?” Albeit a foreign concept for most, many of these same individuals ironically watched others play games on television throughout the week. We just call those games sports. Same concept but different activity.
What those critics forget is that all of it, esports or sports, is purely there for our entertainment. So, we said, “To each their own.” Where there is passion, fans, competition, and most importantly, an audience, there’s a place for us to have a voice.
For us at SPORTFIVE, what began as a small, experimental initiative by four people has quickly transformed into one of our most powerful growth engines through disciplined risk-taking, strategic bets, and relentless commercial execution.
Our commitment to identifying these passionate fan bases early allowed us to be at the forefront of decision-making processes for marketers, building expertise in areas others lack behind. That continues today. For us, it’s about being both the first and the best.
“We ventured into this sector not to chase novelty, but because we recognized familiar patterns: passionate fans, global audiences, rights holders seeking sustainable commercial models, and brands searching for cultural relevance, all of which align with what has made SPORTFIVE successful in advising sports teams, leagues, and rightsholders for years.”
Eike Gyllensvärd, President of Global Esports and Gaming at SPORTFIVE
2016-2017: Building the Foundation
Early esports were the wild, wild west. Teams run by former players, many of whom had little to no business background, garnered hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of fans. Instantly, there was value to be had. The savvy marketers were early to the party and looked to capture this young audience. Often, an up-and-coming marketing manager convinced a higher up to invest their “innovation budget” in a $100K - $300K partnership with a team.
In 2016, however, we saw a true spotlight shine on the industry. In November of that year, Activision Blizzard announced they would start the Overwatch League, a brand-new league, modeled off the NFL, where teams were regionalized and franchised with permeant ownership. Shortly thereafter, in June of 2017, Riot Games announced that they would be franchising their North American competitive league. Over 100 major investors lined up to submit their bid.
This foundation brought even more attention from major marketers as esports were having a moment: they provided a more stable, and frankly familiar, marketing play to reach a young audience. Investors loved it. Brands loved it. All engines were a go. This was our time to step in.
SPORTFIVE took the leap into esports in 2016 with a focus on facilitating partnerships with national and pan-European esports organizations, with our first client being Unicorns of Love. We were on the ground floor, helping emerging teams partner with global brands to reach a young, passionate fan base.
2018-2019: Breakthrough Momentum & Global Validation
This period marked the first major commercial and cultural breakthroughs within esports.
Leagues expanded. More investors, including high-profile individuals such as Drake, Steph Curry and Shaquille O’Neal, dumped millions into teams as they built the future of sport. Viewership continued to climb exponentially. Teams spent freely on players, giving them massive multimillion dollar contracts. Teams also spent big on staff, luring legacy sports personnel over to help run partnerships.
Not only were esports flourishing, but this was also the time we started to see the power of creators in full effect. Drake and Tyler “Ninja” Blevins broke, at the time, the all-time Twitch viewership record when they teamed up for a game of Fortnite. Epic Games announced a $30 Million dollar prize pool for the Fortnite World Cup. The Dota2 International locked in a $25M prize pool thanks to over $23M in crowdfunding through in-game purchases.
During this moment in time, SPORTFIVE deepened its roots. We welcomed Riot Games and the LEC, Riot’s European League of Legends League, as clients. We found quick success bringing brands like Kia, LG, and KitKat to the league.
We began relationships with teams, including Fnatic and T1. At this point, SPORTFIVE was one of the first agencies to take a global approach to esports by adding department leads in multiple countries. This allowed SPORTFIVE to connect across continents, all while bridging the gap between multiple constituents. This move gave us a presence in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and in the Asia-Pacific region.
Brand dollars continued to flood in. Revenue was up, as was spending and viewership. All signs pointed up. But was it sustainable?
2020-2021: The Inflection Point
The turning point arrived with two parallel movements:
1. The world’s shift to digital-first behavior (COVID era)
As consumer entertainment migrated online, esports audiences ballooned. Marketers lost their ability to spend on live events and leagues and thus, to preserve budgets, shifted to a more digital medium. Esports became a prime target to capture a wide range of audiences as it was one of the few competitions that was not disrupted by the shift to digital. There was a significant increase in:
Digital Inventory
Brand Interest
Rights Holders (Developers, Creators, Teams, Leagues, etc.)
However, this also was the moment when creators became household names. TikTok, Twitch, and YouTube all saw massive increases in usage during this period and thus, marketers were now presented with additional options within the world of GAMING to reach a new audience. The shift to the word GAMING here, rather than esports, is important.
2. The Headline Chasing Begins (2021)
This is when marketers started to look for the next headline. Their fellow brand marketers were already dominating Forbes and Adweek, with their latest Esports partnership, but what was next? Some realized quickly that while esports are gaming, gaming as a whole was not esports. Essentially, there were millions of gamers who were not esports fans that they could reach.
Enter the rise of virtual worlds:
Minecraft becomes a new frontier
Roblox begins to see massive interest for the freedom they provide brands to build their own games
Creator Organizations begin to hit the forefront (i.e. OTK, FaZe Clan, etc.)
If it had a tie to gaming, and generated a headline, it was where brands and marketers would allocate their innovation budget. We knew this, so we took advantage of it.
SPORTFIVE continued to push expansion globally, entering the U.S. officially in 2021. We diversified our offering with the acquisition of Build a Rocket, a world-renowned esports and gaming activation agency based out of Germany. At that time, we had a team of 60+ experts across the globe, servicing brands from partnerships to execution.
“Over the past 10 years, the only constant in the esports and gaming industry has been change. Despite this, SPORTFIVE’s gaming group has successfully navigated the relentless transformations that this sector has experienced. Because of that, we have emerged as one of the leading agencies in the space. We look forward to lending our expertise and supporting games, platforms, creators, and brands in 2026 and beyond.”
Ryan Dow, Head of U.S. Gaming and Esports at SPORTFIVE
2022-2023: From Esports to Global Gaming
Suddenly, this market shift led to what many individuals would describe as an ‘esports winter.’ It all came crashing down as teams and leagues folded. A bleak picture of the industry quickly emerged.
Inflated costs and undiversified revenue streams served as the main reason for this slide. For most teams, 80% of their revenue came from partnerships. When partnerships began to dry up, as brands looked towards the next big headline in gaming, investors came knocking for their returns. It signaled the end for many.
Yet, for some individuals, this served as an opportunity. A wave of consolidation brought many great organizations together into a unified, more stable structure. Diversified revenue streams became a focus. Like any bubble, the strong and persistent survive. Often, they flourish.
For us at SPORTFIVE, esports will always be at the core of what we do, but building our business across creators, virtual worlds, and directly with game developers was already underway. We understood diversification was key, even before the heart of the “esports winter”. The agency continued to anticipate change. We signed new creators, as we helped them build and monetize custom IP platforms. We brought on developers as clients, including EA SPORTS and Ubisoft. It allowed us to truly become an esports and gaming agency, marking a transition from being an esports agency in gaming to becoming a true gaming partner.
2024-2026: Gaming as a Strategy
From 2023 to today, the shift has continued. Things have settled. Esports continue to post record viewership at every event. More kids play on the Roblox platform than almost any other game on the planet. Creators dominate culture. For brands, it's now about building a well-rounded gaming strategy, not just about the headline.
All of this culminates in our positioning as a global leader with the most comprehensive esports and gaming business offered by any agency globally. SPORTFIVE’s Gaming Group is well-rounded. We are 360-degree strategy builders that do not pigeonhole a brand into a segment, but into what you do with the partner. Just like there’s no one entry point to market in “SPORTS”, there is no one entry point to market in “GAMING”. A tailored approach is key.
That is why we have survived these 10 years as we have a well-rounded approach to the industry and over 100 experts to prove it.
This is the first installment of a series of articles that will be published on a monthly basis in 2026. Stay tuned for our next insight, which will focus on the emergence of creator-led soccer leagues.
