I only got a small glimpse into this world (specifically, esports betting), but the thing that makes the most sense to me is that esports is driven by gambling. That's the economic engine under the hood.

Might be wrong, but it kinda looked like that was what was going on, just from some of the numbers floating around, and seeing that was the first time esports-as-an-industry made any sense to me at all, as far as how the economics might work out.

> E-sports is essentially advertising for computer games.

No more than live sports are advertising for sports equipment. The real money in sporting events is in the events themselves: advertising dollars, gate receipts, and merchandise. Esports isn't terribly different, except that the gate receipts and merch sales are much lower. The revenue of the game itself is secondary, especially since the publisher rarely plays a major role.

Esports and sports have extremely different revenue models. The differentiator is that no one ‘owns’ traditional sport games. Anyone can make and sell a basketball, but blizzard has a monopoly on over watch. Sport leagues only indirectly make money when people play their game, but for esports it’s extremely direct and also easier to measure.

League of Legends makes multiple billions of dollars a year, not from esport receipts, but from people buying content in the game. The NFL doesn't make a dime when you play football in your backyard.