Danish eSport losing qualified gamers

Talented computer players tend to move abroad where they can get higher wages

Lucie Rychla

Sep 23, 2015

Esports – playing computer games like Counter-Strike, Star Craft and League of Legends – at a competitive level is booming worldwide and has become very popular in Denmark as well.

Losing promising talents
However, Zahid Butt, the organiser of the largest of the local gaming tournaments, Copenhagen Games, worries Denmark is losing its talented gamers for the United States or Germany where they can earn much more money.

“On the one hand, large international companies don’t want to invest in Denmark, because we are simply too small for esport. On the other hand, Danish companies don’t invest in esport because they don’t understand what it is,” Butt told DR.

According to Butt, playing computer games professionally is a taboo in Denmark and companies are not aware the sport can be a goldmine and provide huge promotional value.

For instance, organisers of the ESL Counter-Strike tournament in Cologne in August recorded over 27 million unique viewers, which made the tournament the biggest of its kind ever.

Making 100,000 a month
“To sponsor a top team of five, a company would have to budget for over 3 million kroner a year in wages,” Finn Andersen, a member of the fourth highest paid Counter Strike team in the world, told DR.

“Additionally, the company would have to cover travel costs and other expenses for the team.”

The 25-year-old Andersen plays Counter-Strike six hours a day and earns 100,000 kroner a month.

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