Benzinga - The esports industry has experienced a significant downturn in recent months, with sponsors exiting the space and resulting in scores of employees being laid off. As a response to this, and in order to retain sponsors, esports organizations are now making a concerted effort to support female competitive gamers in 2023, as first reported by Digiday.
Last week, several esports teams took significant steps in this direction. For example, G2 Esports, a European esports organization with headquarters in Berlin, announced the launch of its third all-women team, "Oya", which will compete in Valve's "CS:GO".
Moreover, FaZe Clan (NASDAQ: FAZE), the professional esports organization based in Los Angeles created its first all-female pro esports team for Tencent (OTC: TCEHY)'s "Valorant", while Guild Esports (OTC: GULDF), the UK-based esports company co-owned by former soccer player David Beckham, formed its own female "CS:GO" roster.
Women In Esports: Still A Long Way To Go Despite some esports teams fielding all-female teams for over a year, the disparity between the number of female esports professionals and male players competing full-time in the industry is still significant. Additionally, female players are often awarded substantially less prize money than their male counterparts.
In fact, a report by Best Online Casinos from January revealed that, in the United States, female pro players earn an average of only $3.42 for every $100 earned by male players. This glaring gender pay gap is especially alarming when considering that every single one of the top 400 highest-earning esports players in the world is male, as noted in the report.
In dialogue with Digiday, Kelly Sander, the head of strategy for the esports betting platform Thunderpick, said: “If women need to go actually earn a salary living off of esports — well, they’re not winning prize pools, and they’re not getting deals on the side to be a creator or an influencer, so it doesn’t really present them a fair nor appetizing opportunity to actually work in the industry.”
“So unless big changes are implemented, it’s going to be a forever cycle — and that’s why it’s great that a lot of these different groups and people are doing these big changes for females in esports,” she concluded.
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