FNATIC INSIGHTS: ESPORTS COVID REPORT FNATIC INSIGHTS: ESPORT COVID UPDATE As the human tragedy of COVID-19 continues to unfold, its harsh impact on business will have repercussions for years to come. Social distancing, border closure and self-isolation have damaged the entertainment, sports and leisure industries in particularly acute ways. Strict lockdown restrictions, and the need to keep adults and children alike busy and engaged, created an unprecedented scarcity of choice and availability of new entertainment. Esports has been perhaps the most substantial beneficiary of this shift in attention. As the vast majority of households globally now have access to an internet-connected entertainment device, the short tap to mobile gaming or app-based streaming made gaming and esports the most immediately-available distraction from the grim events dominating the news cycle. Viewers who found themselves “completing Netflix” increasingly turned instead to the world of live and VOD content, many for the very first time. What they discovered there was a level of interaction and engagement with creators and celebrities that outstrips traditional TV and OTT platforms. In this report, we will explore the effects of COVID-19 on esports events and their move to online broadcasting, the effects on publishers and game developers including revenues, the “drive to live” for esports content, and finally, the rapid embrace of esports by traditional sports. INTRO FNATIC INSIGHTS: ESPORT COVID UPDATE EFFECTS ON ESPORTS 01. FNATIC INSIGHTS: ESPORT COVID UPDATE While COVID-19 was still in its early stages of development as a global pandemic, esports was one of the first industries to take decisive action to limit access to live events for supporters. Given the relative immaturity of esports to traditional sports, it’s interesting (and a positive indicator of overall industry maturity) that esports tournament organisers were arguably the more proactive operators in managing the initial risks of COVID-19. For example, several weeks prior to the ‘business as usual’ completion of the UK’s Cheltenham Festival racing event (10-13 March) and the UEFA Champions League fixture between Liverpool and Atlético Madrid (11 March), ESL’s IEM Katowice CS:GO ‘major’ took place behind closed doors; and thereafter almost all major esports competitions moved rapidly to a wholly online set-up. Even if the bulk of spectators are viewing online, closing the doors of a major esports event wasn’t a step to take lightly. As well as a platform to sell merchandise and activate the esports community, live esports events offer an opportunity for sponsors to speak directly to fans, and for teams to showcase the passion of their communities to those sponsors. For non-endemic sponsors, high-attendance esports arena events also provide a comfortable jumping- off point for a first investment into esports, given their similarity to live sporting or convention-style activations. OFFLINE EVENTS: AFK intelextrememasters.com, IEM Katowice 2020 FNATIC INSIGHTS: ESPORT COVID UPDATE Following the changes to IEM Katowice, COVID-19 forced other league and tournament organisers across all titles to change their events. Some cancelled or postponed their events - but most shifted them online, taking esports back to its early local network-based roots. FOR THE PERIOD FROM JAN-MAY 2020, 98 TOURNAMENTS OR EVENTS WERE CANCELLED IN TOTAL [1] Restructuring of several tournament series into regional leagues (instead of standard qualifier- to-international-tournament pathways). For example, the CS:GO competition DreamHack Masters, which was scheduled to take place live in Jönköping, Sweden, transitioned to a regional format. Increased focus on community activation by developers, via community-based and ‘pro-am’ tournaments. After cancelling the upcoming Rainbow Six Siege events, Ubisoft announced weekly, cross-platform, fully open online community tournaments. The variations did not stop at the shift from physical to digital. We also saw: 23.5% - cancelled 31.6% - shifted online 44.9% - postponed ESPORTS EVENTS RESPONSE ONLINE IS BACK (AND BETTER THAN EVER) [1] EsportsObserver , ESPN / Liquidpedia DreamHack Masters Spring 2020: Europe | Dot Esports FNATIC INSIGHTS: ESPORT COVID UPDATE While physical esports events will return eventually, teams and developers have seen the scale benefits of well-organised online events. Contractual restrictions applied by developers to online activations in the pre-COVID world (and particularly to the use of team sponsor content in in-game inventory) have been temporarily disabled. This has led to a bigger inventory of online assets for teams to monetise online. As the organisations most reliant on the physical elements of esports, tournament and league operators have taken the most substantial hit from offline event cancellations. For example, while Modern Times Group (the parent company of both digital festival company DreamHack and esports events company ESL) announced a small (2% YoY) Q1-20 net sales decline, principally driven by a decline in esports segment of 11% (due to events properties being moved online or not happening altogether). Additionally it predicts its operations vertical to drop 25-35% for H1-20 overall [2] In line with this, esports consulting agency and data service Newzoo has revised its estimate of total esports revenues for 2020 to $1.06B, down from its previous estimate of $1.1B (but still up YoY vs 2019). Newzoo’s re-forecast predicts the biggest percentage revenue drop off in the “merchandise and tickets” vertical (down 12.2% / US$15m), which is mainly connected to offline events, along with a decrease in “media rights” (down 4.8% / US$176M) and “sponsorship” ( down 3.4% / US$615M) categories. On the other end, they plan an increase in the “streaming” (up 9.3% US$19.9M) and “publisher fees” (up 3.3% / US$120.2M) categories ( see graph for full picture ). $614.9M +13.1% YoY $176.2M +11.5% YoY $106.5M +0.8% YoY $21.5M +60.9% YoY $19.9M +44.9% YoY $120.2M -2.5% YoY Sponsorship Media Rights Merchandise & Tickets Publisher Fees Digital Streaming 2020 ESPORTS REVENUE STREAMS (GLOBAL) - NEWZOO APRIL 2020 REFORECAST [2] MTG press release ECONOMIC IMPACT REVENUE IN OUR ESPORT VERTICAL IS EXPECTED TO DECLINE BY 25-35 PERCENT IN 1H 2020, COMPARED WITH OUR CORRESPONDING PERIOD IN 2019 [2] MODERN TIMES GROUP Q1 20 UPDATE (OWNER ESL/DREAMHACK) FNATIC INSIGHTS: ESPORT COVID UPDATE EFFECTS ON PUBLISHERS 02. FNATIC INSIGHTS: ESPORT COVID UPDATE Pre-COVID it was already the case that gaming’s share of time and wallet was increasing, particularly among young people - but COVID hyper-accelerated that trend. Per Nielsen, 4 out of 5 global consumers played video games or watched video game content during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. In general the industry saw a 46% daily active user increase in PC gaming and 17% increase in mobile gaming . This led to a growth in microtransactions, with In-App Purchase (IAP) Revenue for mobile games increasing by 24% since the pandemic was declared [3] All in all Superdata [4] , game spending reached $10.5B in April 2020 (+17% YoY), with earnings growing in PC (+12% YoY), mobile (+14%) and console (+42%). Predictably, social distancing measures also led to an increase in online play. Almost a third of of US-based gamers reported spending more time gaming with friends online. Median playtime on Steam (a platform for developers of all sizes to launch games) increased, as did peak concurrent play (20.31M in March 2020, roughly 2x April 2017). MORE FREE TIME, MORE GAMING? NUMBER OF PLAYERS OF CALL OF DUTY: WARZONE WORLDWIDE AS OF APRIL 2020 6 Mar 10, 2020 Mar 13, 2020 Mar 20, 2020 Apr 10, 2020 15 30 50 0 60 30 Number of players in millions Jan ‘16 Mar ‘16 May ‘16 Jul ‘16 Sept ‘16 Nov ‘16 Jan ‘17 Mar ‘17 May ‘17 Jul ‘17 Sept ‘17 Nov ‘17 Jan ‘18 Mar ‘18 May ‘18 Jul ‘18 Sept ‘18 Nov ‘18 Jan ‘19 Mar ‘19 May ‘19 Jul ‘19 Sept ‘19 Nov ‘19 Jan ‘20 Mar ‘20 May ‘20 400 1400 600 Number of players in thousands 1200 1000 800 Jan ‘16 Mar ‘16 May ‘16 Jul ‘16 Sept ‘16 Nov ‘16 Feb ‘16 Apr ‘16 Jun ‘16 Aug ‘16 Oct ‘16 Dec ‘16 Jan ‘17 Mar ‘17 May ‘17 Jul ‘17 Sept ‘17 Nov ‘17 Feb ‘17 Apr ‘17 Jun ‘17 Aug ‘17 Oct ‘17 Dec ‘17 Jan ‘18 Mar ‘18 May ‘18 Jul ‘18 Sept ‘18 Nov ‘18 Feb ‘18 Apr ‘18 Jun ‘18 Aug ‘18 Oct ‘18 Dec ‘18 Jan ‘19 Mar ‘19 May ‘19 Jul ‘19 Sept ‘19 Nov ‘19 Feb ‘19 Apr ‘19 Jun ‘19 Aug ‘19 Oct ‘19 Dec ‘19 Jan ‘20 Mar ‘20 May ‘20 Feb ‘20 Apr ‘20 35 105 45 Number of players in thousands 95 85 55 65 75 115 125 MONTHLY NUMBER OF PEAK CONCURRENT PLAYERS OF ROCKET LEAGUE ON STEAM WORLDWIDE FROM JANUARY 2016 TO MAY 2020 THE FREE-TO-PLAY CS:GO SAW AN INCREDIBLE RISE IN PLAYER BASE [3] Unity Monetization report, data for March 8th to May 4th [4] Super data research FNATIC INSIGHTS: ESPORT COVID UPDATE Q1-20 saw further cementing of the central role of developers to the esports ecosystem. Nintendo’s soothing Animal Crossing: New Horizons helped double sales of its Switch console, with overall console sales increasing YOY by 61% [5] . More recently Nintendo announced that Animal Crossing: New Horizons had sold 13.4 million copies since it launched on 20 March 2020, making it the highest selling game in the series’ history [6] and the best- selling Switch title (by units and in-game revenue) of all time - quite a feat in two months. In turn, record engagement and spending in games led major gaming publishers to outperform the market on the basis of strong results for the first quarter of the year. In Q1 2020 Zynga (+27% stock price, +52% rev growth), Activision (+23% stock price, -2% rev decline), Electronic Arts (+8.5% stock price, +%12 rev growth) and Take-Two (+6% stock price, +% rev growth) were bright lights in an otherwise bleak picture for shareholders (S&P 500 overall -9.3%). DEVELOPERS FTW Feb 2020 Apr 2020 May 2020 Jun 2020 80 90 100 110 120 130 Feb 2020 Apr 2020 May 2020 Jun 2020 80 90 100 110 120 130 Feb 2020 Apr 2020 May 2020 Jun 2020 80 90 100 110 120 130 ELECTRONIC ARTS INC. 128.12 USD +2.39 (1.90%) ↑ ACTIVISION BLIZZARD, INC. 75.41 USD +2.41 (3.30%) ↑ TENCENT HOLDINGS LTD 450.60 HKD +1.80 (0.40%) ↑ [5] Nintendo, Q1 results [6] GameIndustryBiz, at 8 May 2020 FNATIC INSIGHTS: ESPORT COVID UPDATE EFFECTS ON VIEWERSHIP 03. FNATIC INSIGHTS: ESPORT COVID UPDATE Among developers, Riot was the most-watched, with nearly 500M watch hours in Q1-20 (vs 350M for Valve and 290M for Epic) [7] . Riot’s League of Legends European Championships Spring Split saw 32M watch hours (+4.7M), with a peak of over 813K (vs 478K) watching arch-rivals G2 beat Fnatic in the final. In contrast to Newzoo’s predictions (see “Offline Events: AFK”), we expect these numbers to lead to improved returns for some of the major leagues. Now armed with stellar watch hours numbers among extremely attractive demographics, developers will be looking forward with interest to upcoming negotiations with streaming platforms and an increased interest from linear broadcasters. ESPORTS VIEWERSHIP: MAJOR TOURNAMENTS [7] Esports Charts, Streamlabs Fnatic at the LEC Summer Split 2020, Riot Games LEC SPRING GROWTH IN COMPARISON TO 2019 PRO LEAGUE EU GROWTH IN COMPARISON TO 2019 32.2M 817K HOURS WATCHED PEAK VIEWERS 17% Y oY 71% Y oY 33.9M 490K HOURS WATCHED PEAK VIEWERS 454% Y oY 203% Y oY Fnatic G2 Esports Team Liquid Astralis / Origin FaZe Clan 1 2 3 4 5 Peak CCU Hours Watched 817K 1M 317K 489K 458K 27.2M 26.1M 24.7M 19M 18.2M MOST WATCHED TEAMS DURING COVID (MARCH 1ST - JUNE 30TH) Team Games included: CS:GO/Dota2/LoL/RainbowSix Vitality Cloud9 100 Thieves 6 7 8 317K 379K 294K 18M 12M 8.5M Data provided by FNATIC INSIGHTS: ESPORT COVID UPDATE Yes, YouTube Gaming saw 1.1B watch hours in Q1-20 (average CCV at nearly 0.5M); and yes, Facebook Gaming also saw increases, reaching 0.5B watch hours for the quarter; CCV also increased by 15.5% QOQ. However, among online platforms, the real winner was Twitch. The platform experienced a 17% increase in hours watched compared to the previous quarter and represents 65% of the market share compared to the other platforms. Average concurrent viewership on Twitch increased (MOM) by 16% from February to March 2020, and then again by 55% into April; for the first time ever, Twitch surpassed 3 billion watch hours in a quarter (3.1B, Q1-20, i.e. roughly double YouTube Gaming and Facebook combined). These numbers build on Twitch’s explosive growth as a streaming platform over recent years, with watched minutes roughly doubling from 2017 to 2019, and up nearly 32% YoY. As the cherry on top of the cake, Twitch’s erstwhile competitor Mixer saw overall viewership and concurrents drop (by -7.3% and -5% respectively) [8] TWITCH: FULL STREAM AHEAD [8] Streamlabs Twitch 67.6% - Twitch 1.4% - Mixer 11.0% - Facebook TOTAL HOURS WATCHED IN Q2 2020 20.0% YouTube Gaming FNATIC INSIGHTS: ESPORT COVID UPDATE Q2 ‘18 Q3 ‘18 Q4 ‘18 Q1 ‘19 2,000 TWITCH TOTAL HOURS WATCHED SINCE Q2 2018 [10] 2,600 3,200 3,800 4,400 5,000 Q2 ‘19 Q3 ‘19 Q4 ‘19 Q1 ‘20 Q2 ‘20 2.27B 2.45B 2.55B 2.77B 2.76B 2.79B 2.66B 3.11B 5.06B Hours watched in millions Twitch smashed its previously set records for hours watched, hours streamed, unique channels, and average concurrent viewership. Facebook Gaming reached 822 million hours watched on the platform, tripling its numbers year-over-year. The number of unique channels on Facebook Gaming increased 55% from last quarter and tripled year-over-year. Hours watched on YouTube Gaming Live increased 39.6% quarter-over-quarter. VALORANT was the most-watched game on Twitch in a single quarter with 534 million hours, beating Fortnite which peaked at 399 million hours in Q2 of 2018. Streamlabs, the much-hailed software suite of choice for many streamers, pulled together their Q2 report of the streaming landscape and had this to say: Streamlabs and Mixer logos IN THE BATTLE FOR LIVESTREAM VIEWERS AND WATCHED HOURS, GOOGLE MADE A MOVE INTO DISTRIBUTION DEALS BACK IN JANUARY - SIGNING AN EXCLUSIVE DEAL WITH ACTIVISION BLIZZARD TO STREAM THEIR ESPORTS TOURNAMENTS SUCH AS COD AND OWL ON YOUTUBE LIVE [9] [9] The Verge [10] Esports Charts The number of unique channels on Mixer reached all-time highs in Q2. However Microsoft’s made a stunning announcement on 22 June 2020 that it would close the platform and transfer Mixer ‘partners’ to Facebook Gaming. This leaves over 5 million Mixer channels that need to choose another platform to stream on, further confirming the consolidation of streaming ecosystem in the West down to the 3 main ones (YT, FB, TW). NO MORE MIXER FNATIC INSIGHTS: ESPORT COVID UPDATE [11] Twitch tracker Total hours watched were consistently above 2019 on a monthly basis. April 2020 was the highest spike, with a 101% increase YoY, while February and Jan were respectively above by 5% and 7% [11] TOTAL HOURS WATCHED While the number of hours streamed was slightly lower in January 2020 and flat in February 2020 vs 2019, the Month of March 2020 shows a 20% increase YoY and April and May show significant uptick at 83% and 108% YoY respectively [11] TOTAL HOURS STREAMED While the number of channels was slightly lower in January and February 2020 vs 2019, the Month of April and May show significant uptick at 72% and 88% YoY respectively [11] TOTAL NUMBER OF CHANNELS Average concurrent viewership on Twitch increased by 19.5% in Q1 2020 vs. past quarter, reaching a new all-time high, and even higher record for April (+101% YoY) and May (+87% YoY) [11] AVERAGE CCV SINCE JAN 2019 Jan ‘19 Feb ‘19 Mar ‘19 Apr ‘19 May ‘19 Jun ‘19 Jul ‘19 Aug ‘19 Sept ‘19 Oct ‘19 Nov ‘19 Dec ‘19 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec 0M 20M 40M 80M 60M 0M 2M 4M 8M 6M 0M 500M 1000M 2000M 1500M Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec 0.5M 1.0M 1.5M 2.5M 2.0M Jan ‘20 Feb ‘20 Mar ‘20 Apr ‘20 May ‘20 Jun ‘20 Total Hrs watched ‘19 Total Hrs watched ‘20 Total Hrs streamed ‘19 Total Hrs streamed ‘20 Active Channels ‘19 Active Channels ‘20 4.9B 2.3M 6M HOURS WATCHED AVERAGE VIEWERS PEAK VIEWERS 70.3% ↑ 70.3% ↑ 115.6% ↑ As lockdown began to ease, viewership on Twitch remained strong, helped by the 12 June launch of Sony’s Playstation 5 [11] GROWTH IN LAST 90 DAYS: MARCH 16TH - JUNE 16TH VS. PREVIOUS 90 DAYS FNATIC INSIGHTS: ESPORT COVID UPDATE Althought there might have been a decline in PC gaming in China during the pandemic due to the internet cafes shutting down , local streaming platforms raked up some solid results over Q1 2020. Refers to average monthly active users on Huya platform. Average MAUs for any period is calculated by dividing (i) the sum of active users on our platform for each month during such relevant period, by (ii) the number of months during this period. CHINA [12] [13] PR Newswire [14] KrASIA [15] KrASIA, Bili Bili Q1 2020 earnings Wuhan-based Douyu also saw revenues jump 53% YoY in Q1 2020 to $321M However their user base declined slightly during the quarter (down by ~1% to 158.1M ), despite Douyu’s average revenue per user (ARPU) increasing by 23.7% YoY [14] Douyu is HUYA’s main competitor. The subject range of its video content is generally wider than HUYA’s. HUYA’s revenues increased by nearly 50% YOY to $340.6M . Average MAUs [12] increased by more than 22% to 151M as fans increased their interest in game-centric content during the lockdown. HUYA benefits from strong support from Tencent, which became its largest shareholder in April 2020. Tencent’s acquisitive approach to the gaming and esports ecosystem - including full ownership of Riot, near-complete ownership of Supercell, and significant investment in Epic - presages a strong Q2 for HUYA in terms of streaming content [13] HUYA Inc. is the leading game live streaming platform in China. Huya hosts live video game streams and other esports content. Bilibili’s revenues increased by 69% YoY in Q1 2020 to $327M, especially supported by the growth of revenue from value-added ( +172% YoY to $112.2M ) Average monthly active users (MAUs [12] ) reached 172.4M , and mobile MAUs reached 156.4M, representing increases of 70% and 77% , respectively, from the same period in 2019 [15] Bilibili is an online entertainment and mobile gaming company, with a wide array of user-generated content in the style of Youtube. FNATIC INSIGHTS: ESPORT COVID UPDATE And if Twitch is doing great, it follows that some of the 5m+ content creators who streamed through the platform in March 2020 must have also had some of their most incredible periods yet. The Mick Fannings and Kelly Slaters of the content crunch wave included: VALORANT... WOW. US-based streamer and ex-CS:GO pro Jaryd ‘summit1g’ Lazar, whose channel currently leads in total hours watched on Twitch (49M hours watched in 90 days) [16] Friend-of-Fnatic Ludwig ‘Anomaly’ Lagerstedt, whose signature balaclava and 24/7 open stream increased his watched hours by 6,700% in 90 days and catapulted him into the second most viewed channel on Twitch (by watch hours) [17] TOTAL HOURS WATCHED TRENDING (JANUARY ’20 - JUNE ’20) [18] League of Legends [16] SullyGnome, at 14 June 2020 [17] SullyGnome, at 14 June 2020 [18] Twitch, Newzoo reports playvalorant.com, VALORANT characters 100M 200M 300M Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Fortnite Call of duty: Modern Warfare Counter-Strike: Global Offensive VALORANT Rainbow 6 Siege Dota 2 FNATIC INSIGHTS: ESPORT COVID UPDATE What did these two wave-riders have in common? They were playing VALORANT , Riot’s long-awaited FPS, which launched (in closed beta) on 7 April 2020... into the most content-starved audience in the history of content. By enlisting well-known Fortnite, CS:GO and Apex Legends streamers to distribute closed beta keys, Riot savvily created immediate competition (which is useful for a game intended to be fun to play and great to watch), hype around their launch through affiliate marketing, and extreme FOMO from the FPS community (who immediately busied themselves with the search for beta keys). As a result, VALORANT’s launch broke Twitch’s all-time concurrent viewership record, and the game continues to lead the platform in overall watch hours. As can be seen from the table below, long-standing open-world games like Fortnite and Grand Theft: Auto remained popular with Twitch viewers. A busy quarter on the Fortnite island was capped with another meme-ready narrative-driving event, “The Device”. Fornite’s developer Epic continues to challenge conventions of what a game can be, hosting within its ‘metaverse’ (among other things) blockbuster movie premieres and a surreal Travis Scott virtual concert attended by tens of millions of fans. Epic also established areas of its playable universe as violence-free social areas - opening up a “cross- platform Second Life meets Facebook” playground within one of gaming’s most popular battlegrounds. VALORANT Just Chatting League of Legends Fortnite Call of Duty: Modern Warface 1 2 3 4 5 518.1M 467.5 M 390M 272.9 M 304.6M 11.3M 7M 10M 16.7M 24.7M 1.7 M 839K 727K 455K 832K hours hours hours hours hours hours hours hours hours hours Fortnite with 20M viewers of its events MOST WATCHED GAMES ON TWITCH, UP TO 16 JUNE 2020 Watch time Stream time Game Peak viewers FNATIC INSIGHTS: ESPORT COVID UPDATE EFFECTS OF ESPORTS ON TRADITIONAL SPORTS 04. FNATIC INSIGHTS: ESPORT COVID UPDATE During the pandemic, all new content is online - ballet, theatre, music and even talk-shows have taken a home-made, self-hosted pivot to digital. Given this wider trend, it’s no surprise that the first port of call for fans and broadcasters of sports like football, basketball and motor racing was to their digital equivalents - living-room staples like EA’s FIFA (which sold 1.5M copies in the UK in 2019, making it the best-selling console game by some distance), Madden and NBA Live franchises, and iRacing.com’s NASCAR series. Converting previously “offline only” sport fans into consumers of online entertainment content is the first step in bringing those consumers into the esports marketing funnel - albeit plotting conversion of a fan of a ‘diet esports’ / easily understood console game like FIFA into a ‘full fat’ game like League of Legends admittedly involves a lot of steps; and query whether these consumers will stay in the funnel once the IRL content returns. WELCOME TO THE PARTY! (PLEASE WASH YOUR HANDS.) Twitter, @F1Media account FNATIC INSIGHTS: ESPORT COVID UPDATE MUSIC CATEGORY ON TWITCH (BASED ON HOURS WATCHED) [19] 1.02M Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 January February March April 1.13M 1.31M 1.15M 1.40M 1.26M 1.06M 1.10M 1.26M 1.19M 2.26M 3.84M 3.34M 3.83M 6.15M [19] Twitch tracker ANOTHER ILLUSTRATION OF MAINSTREAM ENTERTAINMENT ENTERING THE STREAM ECOSYSTEM, IS THE INCREASE OF THE MUSIC CATEGORY WITHIN TWITCH. The category has always existed on Twitch but it only saw meaningful watch hour growth from the third week of March, when lockdown measures came to effect in most countries. This led to many music actors to shift activity to livestream, through the retransmission of past festivals, DJs/musicians directly addressing their audience, Beatport organising events or some radios switching to live stream. In this regard, it’s interesting that the angle many press outlets have taken in relation to tournaments featuring substitute titles has been to focus not on the FIFA esports professionals participating in online matches (which include the best FIFA player on the planet, Fnatic’s Donovan ‘Tekkz’ Hunt) but instead on the IRL players who have been drafted in to play. Shout out Norwich City’s Todd Cantwell and Palace’s Andros Townsend, lauded on Twitter for their on- stream bangers! Football fans who made the move to Twitch during lockdown will soon have even more reasons to stay with the platform, following the announcement on 19 July 2020 that four live English Premier League content will appear on the platform as part of Amazon’s broadcast deal.