While we all know how much Esports has grown in the past 2 years, an esports player winning as much or even more than top Sportsmen was unprecedented. Until now.
The International 9, DOTA’s biggest annual event, saw a prize pool of over 30 million dollars. With OG winning the tournament and getting a sweet $15.6 million, it meant that even if the prize money was distributed equally among the players, each member would receive a whopping $3.1 million in their kitty.
If we compare that to traditional sports, it makes this number even more astounding. The winners of this years’ Wimbledon Championship, Simona Halep and Novak Djokovic, received $2.7 million while Tiger Woods was awarded $2.09 Million for his performance at the masters. This, despite the fact that the two sports are more popular than traditional sport.
This achievement, however, has to be taken with a pinch of salt. While this event happens only once a year, Wimbledon and the masters are just one of many huge events that offer similar prize money. Another difference is that the majority of earnings of traditional sports players is via sponsorships and brand deals, while esport players rely a lot on prize money.
Nevertheless, this is a step in the right direction for esports fans and professionals and this trend only seems to be getting more frequent.
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