League of Lawyers: Esports is creating a new class of white-collar jobs

Many old-school sports fans still might not take esports seriously. But the increased involvement of professional sports organizations such as the NBA, increased esports coverage on mainstream media, and increased regulation of leagues shows that esports is entering a new era of professionalism and mainstream recognition. After all, esports has been accepted as a sport for the 2022 Asian Games, and the Hong Kong government recognized its economic development potential in its 2017 budget announcement. One of the ways that the industry is pushing economic development is by creating a number of employment opportunities.

According to research from CareerBuilder, jobs in ‘traditional’ sports have a multiplier effect, with every job within sports teams and clubs themselves leading to four times as many job outside of the industry in areas such as construction, health care, sales, food preparation and maintenance in stadiums, and stores. However, while we are unlikely to see many “blue collar” jobs in esports stadiums just yet, we are seeing a new breed of “white collar” jobs offering support to players.