ARMCHAIR ATHLETES

Twenty-five million pounds and counting. That’s the record-breaking prize pool for the International 10 Dota 2 gaming tournament, which will take place later this year. To put that into perspective, Bayern Munich picked up around £17 million for winning the Champions League final in 2020, so that’s quite a sizable chunk of change for being extremely good at playing a computer game.

Esports is undeniably big business, and it’s only going to get bigger. As an industry it’s already pulled in bigger viewing numbers than the SuperBowl, mega brands like Coca-Cola have been putting big sponsorship bucks into events, and there have already been talks for esports to be included in a future Summer Olympic Games.

It is rivalling traditional sporting events for eyes, money and interest. With gamers in their billions, many will think they can put