Games Muscle Boom Professional Esports Commentator

Key points: Esports is tipped to become a billion-dollar industry in 2019 Millions of people tune in to watch competitions via streaming services Prize pools in some tournaments are bigger than in conventional sports It was just one of a handful of places equipped with hardware sophisticated enough to run the sci-fi combat game Spacewar.

The lucky winner computer scientist Bruce Baumgart took home a yearly subscription to Rolling Stone Magazine.

Fast forward nearly 50 years, and a 19-year-old from Melbourne last month won a staggering 4.62 million at The International, the world championships for the strategy game Dota 2 a bigger cash prize than Novak Djokovic won for taking out this years Australian Open.

Few back in 1972 could have predicted the transformation of competitive gaming into the lucrative spectator sport that it is today.

Melbourne teenager Anathan Pham, second from the left, celebrates with OG after their win at The International.

Reuters: Aly Song ) Now vying to be recognised alongside conventional sports, esports are quickly shaking off perceptions that video games are childs play.

Parents chiding their kids video game ambitions might want to keep reading, because the gamer kids of today are fast becoming the multi-millionaire esports superstars of tomorrow.

Bigger than Hollywood and the music industry combined Players at the Melbourne Esports Open last weekend were competing for thousands of dollars.

Supplied: Melbourne Esports Open ) On the last weekend of August, 17,000 esports fans descended on Rod Laver Arena for the second Melbourne Esports Open (MEO).

The home of the Australian Open was instead now playing host to two major esporting competitions over two days, along with dozens of other smaller tournaments and exhibitions.

You open the door and you get hit by a wave of sound, sports lawyer Mat Jessep told the ABC.

Theres commentators, youre seeing teams at an elite level competing against each other, lights, lasers and sometimes fireworks.

Jostling for a place amongst the crowd, one could easily be fooled into thinking they were stumbling into a boxing bout or a rock concert.

Thousands of people attend esports events and many more stream them online.

Games Muscle Boom Professional Esports Commentator

Melbourne Esports Open ) Wedding DJ-turned-professional esports commentator Ben Green said the spectacle of modern esports was indistinguishable from conventional sport.

If you sit in the arena, it feels like sports, its the same feeling inside as if youre watching the NRL, AFL, anything like that, he said.

Dream to nightmare Online video game streaming is a relatively new phenomenon, and theres real money to be made but the reality can be far less glamorous.

Read more And across the world thousands, sometimes even millions of people are tuning in to watch esports events via streaming services like Twitch and thats attracted lucrative sponsorship money and growing prize-pools for winners.

Even this weekend, were talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars across all of the tournaments and thats just for Australian competitions alone, Mr Green said.

But that pales in comparison to the prize money dished out overseas.

Australian-born winner Anathan Phams victory came at the worlds richest esports tournament, The International.

The contest draws more viewers than the US Super Bowl, and this year had a prize pool of US30 million (44 million).

Loading While esports is set to surpass an annual revenue of US1 billion (1.47 billion) for the first time this year, Mads Brown from esports company Fortress Australia said the gaming industry overall was bigger than Hollywood and the music industry.

Gaming has a higher revenue than both of those combined for almost the last 10 years now.

Sponsorships, trainers, nutritionists and big bonuses Overwatch players, led by Corey Nigra from the team Washington Justice, walk on stage at Rod Laver Arena.

Melbourne Esports Open ) Blizzard Entertainments first-person shooter Overwatch is a major competitive game, with leagues all around the world.

Loading Players in that league are contracted and given salaries, sponsorships and bonuses theres even a regular seasoned fixture.