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Video games have entirely surpassed their status as a niche hobby, and OHIO’s successful esports scene is proof. In 2025, more people than ever are gaming, including at the professional level. The popularity of esports has increased exponentially in recent years— say the market will exceed a global revenue of $4.8 billion by the end of the year.

Electronic sports or, more commonly, esports, is casual gaming elevated to an organized and professional sport, according to . Esports gamers battle it out for huge cash prizes in structured leagues and tournaments and even attract millions of dollars in brand sponsorship deals along the way. The phenomenon is expected to reach 896 million international spectators and gamers by 2029.

Like any professional sport, being a pro gamer is no easy feat. Gamers usually compete in multiplayer games such as Rocket League, Valorant, League of Legends and Overwatch, to name a few, and becoming pro-level takes an intense amount of time and dedication. The window for going pro is also surprisingly small.

“I think in the pro player industry, you’re looking at 17 to 24 years old,” said Ģ����Ƶ University Director of Esports Jeff Kuhn, Ph.D. “That's also really hard. Just like being in the NFL or the NBA, you've got to be the best of the best to get in, and it's also a very fluctuating market.”

As the Director of Esports at OHIO, Kuhn runs the University’s esports program, an initiative that brought competitive video gaming, associated areas of academic study and research and the OHIO Esports Arena to Ģ����Ƶ University.

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While some gamers have their sights set on going pro, Kuhn sees an alternative, more stable pathway to the $4 billion esports industry—sports broadcasting.

“The jobs aren't at the mouse and the keyboard, as we like to say, the jobs are going to be in the broadcast booth, behind the camera and doing announcing,” said Kuhn. “We have people playing video games on professional teams, collegiate teams, high school teams, competing and playing in structured tournaments and those are all being broadcast out to a larger audience.”

As the popularity of esports continues to grow, Kuhn says that associated esports career opportunities will do so as well.

“Just like we'd see with traditional sports broadcasting, there are all these people involved around the teams and those are the kind of industries that we tend to focus on. It's very similar to what you would see in football or basketball it just happens to be, at this point, at a much smaller scale.”

Esports has origins going back decades but some of the most significant growth occurred from the early 2000s to the present. Early on, gamers gathered in dorms, homes and other venues in Local Area Network (LAN) parties where people would bring their computers to a single location. Today, digital access and remote playing and viewing is much more fundamental to esports.

“I think esports maps pretty well to the growth of the Internet,” explained Kuhn. “We saw groups getting together and saying, ‘hey, we could all get together, have a tournament and compete for prizing,’ and then with the growth of the internet, seeing opportunities to do that from a distance.”

Sparked by the advent of the Internet and mainstream attention, esports continued to grow organically and holistically throughout the late aughts and 2010s with people who love games organizing—finding like-minded sponsors, advertisers and partners. While the internet opened things up, broadcasting, streaming and the interactivity took esports to new heights.

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“One of the things about broadcasting esports is through a platform like Twitch you're able to actually speak with the players while they play,” said Kuhn. “You can interact with the announcers and with the players, and we don't see that level of interactivity with broadcast television. I think this is what really puts a lot of the fire into esports. It's definitely a chaotic environment, but it's also very interactive, much like the games themselves.”

From the mid 2010s going into 2020, Kuhn said esports grew too big too fast, but after the COVID-19 pandemic there was a consolidation that occurred that resulted in a solid and healthier foundation to grow the industry on. With a solid foundation, bigger investments are coming to esports—for example, recently the was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Even the Olympics is looking at incorporating esports in some manner.

“We're starting to see stabilization, and I would call it the maturity of the esports industry,” emphasized Kuhn. “Do I expect it to continue to grow, yes, but I also expect it to grow in a much healthier way.”

With the esports industry being estimated to easily eclipse more than $4 billion this year, the demand for esports jobs is at an all-time high. Jobs in the realm of esports are not only numerous but unique in their range of opportunities, requiring people from many different backgrounds.

Software engineers, event organizers, tournament hosts, broadcasters, announcers, photographers, videographers, graphic designers, coaches, animators, information and telecommunication systems specialists, educators and psychologists all have a place in the esports industry.

“Esports as an industry is really looking for all types of skill sets,” explained Kuhn. “If students are interested in getting skills in their profession, esports is always a great space to do that. One of the things that's really fortunate for us here in Ģ����Ƶ is that one of the biggest esports broadcasting companies in the world is right up in Columbus——and they’re full of OHIO alumni.”

Kuhn added that another noteworthy thing about careers in the esports industry is the demand for jobs with backgrounds that didn't normally go together coming together.

“For instance, we're seeing things like broadcasting, the ability to speak on camera and the ability to tell a story on camera, but also the need for networking background alongside that,” said Kuhn. “A journalism major with an ITS networking minor would be something that the industry's looking for. We're also seeing job listings for things like a tournament organizer who speaks Spanish, Korean, Japanese or Portuguese because of how global the industry is.”

At Ģ����Ƶ University, esports goes far beyond screens and stats, it has become a vital part of campus life, offering students a way to build community and gain valuable career skills. The University has an official OHIO Esports team that competes in the Mid-American Conference, but most students get involved through the Bobcat Esports club or academically through the esports certificate.

The esports certificate offers students a chance to get an esports credential on their transcripts, and blends knowledge from several different disciplines to prepare them for postgraduate careers in esports and related industries.

“One of the things that we focus on with the esports certificate is giving students a range of experiences from virtual reality and game development, to information networking technology and the business side of esports, because it's those together with the major that they've selected that we're seeing jobs in the industry really require.”

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Kuhn says that the esports certificate at OHIO combines classroom learning with experiential learning to ensure students can apply what they learn. The main stage for experiential learning is the OHIO Esports Arena in Scripps Hall, a working space featuring tournament space, high-end gaming PCs for community play, and the latest software development tools for esports- and STEM-related classes.

As part of the esports capstone class, students host and run tournaments out of the arena and must make sure that every aspect of the event is successful. When tournaments aren’t in progress the facility is also open for all students to come enjoy.

“We run multiple shows a week out of the Esports Arena,” said Kuhn. “We have agreements with sponsors and partners. When students come in, it's not just sitting in a classroom discussing esports, but taking what they learned in those classes and putting on a show by 8 p.m. tonight. In that way, there are real-world consequences for what they're learning.”

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The Esports Arena is constantly evolving and integrating the latest technology to provide students the most relevant skills and experiences. Kuhn said that one of the things the esports program is excited about is the installation of a new LED video wall, which he calls the future of live broadcasting.

“We're able to take the maps and the games that our players play in and put our announcers and our broadcasters in there,” he explained. “Students who come in and work with esports, even if they go into traditional broadcasting, they've worked with the cutting-edge equipment, and because this is a workspace, students can actually show a potential employer ‘here's what I've made, here's what I helped build and I understand the equipment,’ which I think is a real value added for our students.”

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