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Video Gamers

DirecTV Trying To Get Into The Game

Not to brag or anything, but I think that I was a little ahead of the game in predicting the rapid rise of the video gaming industry as a sport (for past video gaming posts, check out the Video Gamers archive).

Anyway, the fad sport keeps growing. On November 11, 2006, the USA Network decided to air the MLG (Major League Gaming) [Don’t Hate The Player, Hate The Gamer]. It must have done well, because on June 19, 2007, the MLG announced that it will be expanding to Canada and is under license by Toronto-based Insight Sports [Major League Gaming Expands Into Canada]. Expansion in the MLG alone should show promise for video gamers, but it gets even better.

DirecTV has now decided to enter the mix and develop its own league called the Championship Gaming Series [Is pro gaming the next poker?]. Has DirecTV figured out how to make pro gaming entertaining for viewers – gamers and non-gamers? Only time will tell. But if you are looking at trends and you want to venture into an industry before its potential boom, now may be the time to look into representing the next big video gamer. Here is something to mull over:

DirecTV is betting big money on this league. Salaries and bonuses for the 2007 season will total $5 million, a new benchmark for professional gaming. Rather than offering cash and prizes for individual contests, CGS will operate like a pro sports league. Every drafted player and each general manager will receive a salary with additional bonuses for performances. Reif said the base salaries will be higher than minor-league pro baseball players and winning players can clear six figures in 2007.

So I ask the same question that I asked on January 25, 2006: Representation of “Cyber Athletes”? I think that Dynasty Athlete Representation would have no qualms about representing a top gamer!

-Darren Heitner

By Darren Heitner

Darren Heitner created Sports Agent Blog as a New Year's Resolution on December 31, 2005. Originally titled, "I Want To Be A Sports Agent," the website was founded with the intention of causing Heitner to learn more about the profession that he wanted to join, meet reputable individuals in the space and force himself to stay on top of the latest news and trends.

Heitner now runs Heitner Legal, P.L.L.C., which is a law firm with many practice areas, including sports law and contract law. Heitner has represented numerous athletes and sports agents as legal counsel. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Indiana University Bloomington from 2011-2014, where he created and taught a course titled, Sport Agency Management, which included subjects ranging from NCAA regulations to athlete agent certification and the rules governing the profession. Heitner serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he teaches a Sports Law class that includes case law surrounding athlete agents and the NCAA rules.

5 replies on “DirecTV Trying To Get Into The Game”

So, will we be seeing DGR (Dynasty Gamer Representation) sometime in the future? 😉

On a more serious note, many young, aspiring agents think of clients merely in terms of the four major sports (football, basketball, baseball, hockey), but looking closer there are a ton of other areas of opportunity. Soccer and Golf being the most obvious, but also: boxers, arena league footballers, extreme sports athletes (think X-Games; snowboarders, bmx riders, wakeboarders, etc), olympic athletes, billiards players, poker players, and now even video gamers (and I’m sure I’m forgetting a few more).

Tennis is a big one too. Gamers will be a decent sized industry I am sure. Think about Japan, where some of their biggest celebrities come in the form of gamers. Gamers in Japan make 6-7 figures easily. I don’t know what the equivalent of say Nike sponsoring a pro-athlete would be for a gamer, but I’m sure there is something out there for them. There is always money to be thrown around.

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