The business of esports is growing, and with that development, companies are looking for more qualified professionals to take over important parts of running daily operations. As a result, esports jobs are becoming more popular, and so is the hunger for individuals who are willing to step into various roles and help harness the growth of competitive video gaming organizations.
Today’s esports job market is varied, and it includes numerous roles, many of which are self-promoted. Pro gamers are just one side of things, but the industry is in need of content editors, social media experts, partnership managers, and even traditional executives.
In fact, the job market is quickly evolving, and so is the career landscape, which is becoming more diverse, gender-neutral, and less concentrated in few specific regions around the world. Esports is meant to be a global phenomenon, and as such, we are seeing more viable job postings and offers all over the world. Let’s take a look at what esports jobs there are right now.
What Jobs Are There in Esports?
Before you start looking for an esports job, it may help you to know a little more about the type of job you would be doing. Many aspiring esports professionals are not even fully aware of what opportunities await.
A popular belief is that esports is in need of nothing else but professional gamers, and this may have been true in the early days. However, things have changed, and today, there are many valuable opportunities for you to put your passion and skills to a higher-end within the industry.
Coaches and Health Staff
The hunger for individuals that can bring teams together and turn them into a winning powerhouse has grown over the years. With esports valuation breaking the $1 billion mark, it’s easy to see why you should make every event count. Much of this weight is carried on the shoulders of coaches who need to find a way and turn exceptional players into an exceptional team.
If you have a passion for coaching and helping others to reach their full potential, the esports industry is definitely looking for such individuals, especially on the highest competitive level, where seven-figure prize pools are often the norm. Another aspect of running a successful organization is making sure that, other than raw gaming skills, players stay healthy.
All high-valued esports teams today get health experts to weigh in on physical and mental health, making sure that all players are playing to the best of their ability. The Overwatch League, for example, had to shift its schedule around because players complained that back-to-back games inflicted burnout that was hard to cope with.
Add to this the fact that some of the Overwatch League slots cost anything between $20 million and $60 million, and you can see how players can get worn down. It’s health experts’ job, however, to make sure that pro gamers have a healthy lifestyle, regardless of the time they put into gaming.
Of course, this statement is a little facetious as it’s also every stakeholder’s responsibility, be that a league, a publisher, or a team, to make sure that players aren’t forced to work more than is humanly possible or even healthy. You would not wear down athletes with incessant training and give them time to recover fully, which is exactly what esports should be doing.
Managers and Team Owners
Managers and owners are usually self-promoted jobs. Someone decides to start an esports team, and they do. They can possess any range of qualities, from good connections within the industry to having already presided over other organizations in an executive role.
In fact, many team owners actually used to be players themselves, so they live and breathe the industry. Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag, who is 100 Thieves co-owner, started out as a Call of Duty professional player, so anything he has done as an owner is the result of his ability to position himself within the ecosystem.
In fact, Nadeshot has good connections, and he has secured numerous funding rounds, including co-ownership from Scooter Braun, better known by his artistic moniker, Drake.
If you want to be an owner or manager, you will probably have to bring a mix of qualities and fulfill a number of prerequisites such as securing funding, setting a direction for your organization, and generally be an inspiration to your staff and players with a clear objective in mind.
Casters and Analysts
Casters and analysts are more or less the same breeds of individuals. There are two ways to approach what they do. Some casters succeed based on cultivating a memorable and entertaining character that becomes a golden standard for the community as to what others should be doing when covering games.
Just like a sports commentator, you want to make the commentary entertaining and even add value. Analysts are usually a little better at breaking down the gameplay in terms of what is relevant and what isn’t.
Either profession requires specific skills, and the most successful casters will really combine both. Analysts can work as coaches, too, as they bring a table of knowledge along with them and can help analyze games, set strategies, and identify weaknesses.
Social Media Managers
Maintaining a presence is important in esports as it allows you to secure a worthwhile partnership if the case of Team SoloMid’s deal with crypto exchange FTX is any indication. That is not to say that TSM’s value is in any way contingent on the organization’s strong social media presence. Yet, every self-respecting organization will hire the best possible media managers to engage with fans.
There are many successful role models out there, but social media is really about understanding your consumers’ interests and knowing how to best leverage your brand so that it reaches as many people as possible. You may learn this on the fly as a result of building up your own name or years of experience in and around advertising on social channels such as Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and others.
Ultimately, social media managers are in high demand, and finding ways to engage with the community directly ties into an esports organization’s success. You can expect to find such positions available at all esports job marketplaces.
Sales and Partnership Managers
Once you have a good brand identity, it will be time for you to leverage it to success. That is where sales and partnership managers step in to make sure that you get the most out of your years of hard work and string of successes. If you see yourself as leading the commercial side of the business, you may want to get a job as a partnership manager.
Your responsibilities will include securing deals with various organizations, identifying potential partners and hardware sponsorships, driving your customer base, achieving better conversions, and generally focusing on the almighty dollar as you drive revenues back to your organization.
Production and Broadcasting Managers
Producing quality tournaments is important, and if anyone wants to be an organization of the caliber of Beyond The Summit or WePlay! Esports would need the right people on the job.
That is good news if you have experience working in tournament production, and with hundreds of varsity esports programs out there, it’s not too difficult to imagine that there are viable opportunities to learn how to participate in the production process and get valuable hands-on experience.
C-Level Executives
Gamers are not necessarily too savvy about the business side of things, and in many cases, they don’t seem to care much. Obviously, if you are a C-level executive, you will hardly need the “how to get a job in esports” talk, but it’s still a good reminder that many companies, including those in the world of mainstream sports, are making the switch to esports organizations.
There have been many investors into the esports space, including Mark Cuban, the majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and the NBA 2K League franchise, Mavs Gaming. He is hardly the only person to invest in esports, and there are actual executives who have been migrating to esports. Grant, Cuban is not necessarily too optimistic about esports as a business, but this is beyond the point.
Legal and Financial Experts
Just like any other industry, esports needs the help of legal and financial counsels who are able to identify weaknesses and risk factors for their organization. Multi-million investments are flowing into esports, and the grassroots nature of competitive video gaming is now in the past.
To benefit fully, you will need to make sure that you have the right people on the right job, and this is where you may be stepping in yourself. There are many opportunities for you if you are an accountant or have studied law, from straightening out your organization’s finances to offering legal advice in and out of court.
Every career in esports has some degree of responsibility associated with it, and taking your passion for esports as a hobby is great, but for any top-valued gaming organization to actually work, it needs people with the hunger to grow, and in the case of legal and financial experts – a very good understanding of the subject matter.
Professional Gamers
Naturally, it will sooner or later come down to professional gamers. That is how esports became a factor in the world of entertainment. When Warcraft and StarCraft players were competing in South Korea, they did so with the idea of becoming the best in their chosen game. It was the same for those early-day Dota gamers who really loved the game and wanted to make a career out of it even though there was no monetary incentive in it.
Today, professional video gaming is a 100% viable career path, and if you are a talented and hard-working individual, you will definitely find it very enjoyable. However, the esports space has grown significantly over the past five years, and the result is that there is a lot more competition than at any point in the past, so your competition will be much bigger.
Journalists and Content Creators
Not least, there are the unsung heroes, the journalists. Journalism plays an important part in video gaming, and it has been established as such for decades now. While good journalism is new in esports, it’s also making its mark. It’s thanks to journalists’ work that we remain informed about what is happening in the world of esports, and there have been many high-profile investigations that have sought to address gender disbalance and bias in professional video gaming.
As a matter of fact, as the industry matures, you would need better journalists to weigh in on important issues that concern competitive video gaming, from burnout to equality. Not least, content creators have become huge inspirations for many, from DrDisrespect to Ninja to the people behind WePlay!
How Do I Get a Job in Esports?
There are several steps to consider when planning a career in esports. They are easy enough to follow and should give you an idea of what you may be best suited for.
1. What Would You Want to Do?
We reckon the best way to get a job in esports would be to first identify what you want to do. You may be a more outgoing person and someone who wants to be in the public eye. If you would rather fall behind the curtains and carry out the weight of an organization, you may want to do something that has to do with marketing.
Knowing how to help an individual would mean that you should focus on coaching, and having a background in assisting players or athletes physically or mentally could make you a better fit as an official team health advisor. Ideally, you want to treat esports as any other career path in identifying something you love and balancing it with whether you can realistically make a living, for example.
2. Pick a Training or College Program
Varsity programs are no joke, and you will find hundreds of viable choices when it comes to choosing a college program or a training course to become a part of the ecosystem. You can enter most of these courses and secure scholarships as well as learn important aspects about the ecosystem, from running events to running social media, coaching people, and more. There is no one way to approach it but being specific in honing your skills towards the designated end is always helpful.
3. Promote Yourself and Establish a Network
Esports is just like any other industry, and having connections won’t so much help you advance if you lack merit. Rather, you want to have connections as it would reflect how involved you are in esports. Depending on what role you are going after, you will have numerous occasions to get a little better known in your respected community.
Hitmaker, the leading esports jobs marketplace, argues that you may actually want to spend time branding yourself before you get your first serious job in esports. This could be achieved by becoming a successful and recognizer influencer or commentator of events, journalist, or simply by launching a podcast.
4. Get Internships and Channel Your Passion
Esports is not quite an industry where you need to put in ridiculous hours to prove yourself in the same sense you would need to do work for a big investment bank. However, you still need to start building that experience, and volunteering to manage the social media of a small team or coach a rag-tag band of esports players could be something.
Remember, Team SoloMid, one of the highest-valued and most skilled esports orgs today, started as a forum that managed to sign up talented players and turned the venture into a success. In fact, most esports companies started as purely grassroots ventures by hopefuls who could feel that competitive video gaming would one day mean so much more.
5. It’s All About Location, Location, Location
Remote jobs in esports are not yet the norm. In fact, many of the top-tier organizations expect you to be in their area or region or be willing to relocate to pursue your career. North America is a perfect example of a market that is highly concentrated when it comes to esports jobs. If you live in the United States, you have access, at least geographically, to the most jobs out there.
Considering your chances of landing a career in esports will have to include what salaried options you have in the long-term and how willing you are to relocate. Some people maybe passionate about esports but not so much keen on moving to another country for it. Depending on what organization you run or in what position you participate in the esports job market, you may need to factor this in.
6. Study the Feasibility of Each Career Path
Not least, you ought to consider how feasible a certain esports career path is for you. In other words, being a journalist and attending events, for example, would require connections and an organization willing to pay for this.
Can you be a coach? Look, coaches are certainly a great profession and career path to follow. Many Dota 2 coaches today were known as “theory crafters,” coming up with strategies and testing new builds long before mainstream teams caught up.
Newer games are naturally more challenging, but as many people carry over decades of experience across numerous genres, finding a coach is easier. The question remains if this is the right path for you – it definitely is, but it comes with a caveat. You need to be better than the other people willing to coach.
Demand is already there for many professions in the esports scene, and if you are honest about it, we feel that you can turn any profession in esports work for you. Consistency and hard work usually tend to pay off.
Is Esports a Viable Career?
Yes. There is little to suggest otherwise. Esports has grown, and big investment has started gushing through the dams of skepticism. Making a career in this industry is not only a viable choice but one that many young people are aspiring to. Colleges all over the world are working around varsity programs that teach players a host of skills that is valuable to organizations.
Conclusion: What Is the Best Job for a Gamer?
The best job for a gamer is one that will bring you a mix of things, from financial stability to doing something you love to receiving satisfaction with your chosen career path. Finding a way to do something you love is surely a great way to go through life, and we sure think that at least giving esports a shot – if you feel that is your calling – is the right way to go.
