Esports has a huge, enthusiastic audience.
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Game Boss interview: Why the Philadelphia 76ers dove into esports with Team Dignitas

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 12 min

The NBA gets it. Or at least the Philadelphia 76ers do. The traditional sports basketball team made history in 2016 when it acquired two separate esports teams and merged them into Team Dignitas, one of the premiere professional teams in the fledgling world of competitive gaming.

Market researcher Newzoo predicts that esports will grow to a $696 million business this year, a number that helps explain why traditional sports teams are so interested in their digital counterparts. I caught up with Scott O’Neil, CEO of the Sixers, and Greg Richardson, chairman of Team Dignitas, for an interview about whether they believe that esports has become a mainstream pastime and business.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.