How Greater Manchester could become a global hub for the massive $2bn Esports market
Could this dark room with flashing lights be the next generation’s Old Trafford or Etihad? It sounds like a bold vision - but when you learn more about Esports, you can see why Iain Earle has such big ambitions.
The Maxwell Building is now home to the University of Salford’s state-of the art Esports lab. With its black walls, banks of gaming PCs that look to an untrained eye like arcade machines, and keyboards and PCs with multicoloured flashing lights, it doesn’t look like your typical university IT lab. And that’s the point - it’s aimed at students wanting to work at the cutting edge of a sector that’s growing at pace.
Esports – competitive video gaming watched online or even in person – is a truly massive business, which can come as a surprise to those of us who know far too little about it.
Earlier this year a report by Market.us suggested the global market was worth $1.93bn i n 2023, and could reach $2.4bn this year. By 2032, the market could be worth $10.9bn and the live streaming market keeps growing and as more sponsors are attracted to the sector. In fact, the Esports Workd Cup is ongoing right now.
The US and China dominate the market but it’s big in the North West too. In May, thousands of spectators attended the Rainbow Six Siege Major tournament at the BEC Arena in Trafford Park.
Iain Earle, programme leader for the Esports Business Management course at the University of Salford Business School, is clearly used to having to explain the industry’s rapid growth.
He said: “It's younger demographics that are really driving it. And ultimately it's growing and growing because more and more young people are engaging with it. They start when they’re still in school, usually just by playing the games. And then they'll start to watch the games they play on YouTube, watching content that's been produced for the market.
“And then they sort of develop a deeper passion. A lot of them start to create their own kind of mods to games, making little changes to personalise the games or to make it unique.”
If the North West is to play its part in the growth of Esports, it will need skilled and trained people. That’s where centres like the lab, and MediaCity’s HOST centre, come in.
HOST offers a Gametech campus and programmes for the Esports and gaming sector. In 2023, Salford tech company IN4 group launched the Manchester Exports Academy for young people aged 8-16. Mo Isap, CEO of IN4, said at the time : “The career opportunities in Esports are immense and we want young people in Greater Manchester to know that they too can be a part of this fast-growing, multi-billion pound industry.”
Iain and his team work closely with HOST and now he is keen the University of Salford plays its part in supporting and training older students.
The new lab, formally opened last week when BusinessLive paid a visit, is designed to host tournaments and to train students in the more business-focused skills they will need. It does that in an environment suited for gaming, with low lighting and black walls above those multicoloured computers. There’s even a professional Esports standard F1 rig in the corner of the room.
Iain said: “It's about creating exactly the kind of physical ambience and environment that students will be creative in but also they'll engage with once they work in industry.
“If you go to any kind of business that works with gaming or Esports, they've got a similar kind of ambience as we do here. My background was in the creative music industry so studios were my playground and I connected with that very much.
"It has to have an environment and ambience that really will draw people in but that will also enable young people to deliver their absolute best in a conducive atmosphere.”
Iain sees Esports as a “cultural phenomenon” that brings together not just video gaming and IT but also music and fashion - even observing that one day Esports team shirts could become as common as football shirts are now.
Then there’s broadcasting. Each gaming PC has a professional quality camera while the room also includes a broadcast mixing desk that can be used to present Esports tournaments online.
That all means this room could become the home base for Salford and Greater Manchester Esports teams from the university and beyond.
Iain smiled “This could be like Old Trafford or the Etihad for them" adding that he expected Esports viewing figures might yet grow to rival those of existing sports.
Iain hopes the lab will be a cornerstone of the Esports sector in Greater Manchester and the wider North West. And he has big hopes for the industry as a whole, saying the region is well placed to become a global leader.
He said: “I really do believe that in Manchester and Salford we could become, certainly for this part of the country, the hub for gaming and Esports. There are already some great facilities. We've got a partner organisation, HOST, which we work with down at Media City.
“In May, they had the Rainbow Siege major at the BEC in front of 4,500 paying attendees. Now that has so many economic benefits for the region, not just directly for the Esports industry, but also for those secondary industries like transportation, hotels, restaurants, bars as people come from all over the country to Manchester to go and see a hybrid event that people could also access from all around the world.
"So we're not just applying a local kind of perspective - it's for a global market as well. And I think Manchester, with the history of innovation and popular culture that we have, is ideally placed to really make a big imprint and a mark on this industry.”
It also allows students to learn about the wider Esports ecosystem locally and globally.
He added: “We are also, very importantly, teaching about ethics and integrity. It's still a very new market, a very emerging market. Therefore, regulation sometimes still is taking a little time to get put into place. And it's very important to our learners and the community if they're going to go into the industry, they should go in with their eyes wide open.”
And the centre will also reach out to colleges and the wider community to talk about Esports and the opportunities in the field.
Iain is keen to point out that the lab isn’t about playing games - it’s about everything that goes on beyond that.
“It’s about the business management side of things,” he said. “So if you are a young game developer, how do you get your new game or your new product or service to market?
“Quite often, for young creative people, the gap is they don't know how to get their wonderfully created content out to a wider market. When they do, there is always the risk of exploitation and what we want to do is inform them, educate them, but also bring them to networks and areas where they can further their career after they graduate.”
