Yahoo Finance Lions Gate Eyes eSports Potential; Invests in The Immortals
With the increasing popularity of eSports, Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation LGF.A has invested in the eSports franchise The Immortals. However, the amount of investment has been kept under wraps. The Immortals competes with famous online video games like League of Legends, Counterstrike GO, Overwatch and Super Smash Brothers.
This move might surprise many as most are unaware of the popularity of eSports. Over the past few years, eSports competitions have increased and the company expects eSports market to grow to more than $1 billion by the next year. The company believes that eSports has “the potential to transform the face of sports entertainment.” As per market researcher SuperData Research, eSports industry increased to $892 million in 2016.
Lions Gate is making all possible efforts to foray into the eSports market. In a bid to produce original eSports entertainment content for television as well as digital platforms, Pilgrim Media Group – in which Lions Gate has a majority stake – partnered with the leading eSports promoter, ESL in the previous year. Further, the company has invested in live streaming mobile gaming platform Mobcrush. We believe the company’s investment in eSports will drive its revenues in the long run.
The shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company, which shares space with major studios like Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc. FOXA, has declined 53.4% in the past one year, underperforming the Zacks categorized Movie/Tv/Production/Distribution industry which has witnessed a gain of 5.9%. Notably, the industry occupies a space in the bottom 43% of the Zacks Classified industries (152 out of the 265).
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Shares of Liberty Media Group have gained nearly 57% in the past six months.
Liberty Global has gained nearly 16% in the six months.
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