How to Earn Money in eSports Using These 3 Methods

Finnish gamer Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka became the highest-paying eSports player with $2.2M in annual earnings. That’s indeed an incredible sum, but only the most talented gamers can actually win many tournaments and make fortunes from prize money.

A mediocre professional gamer plays for eSports organizations and is paid a regular salary. The average wage varies from team to team and usually lies somewhere in-between $1,000 and $5,000.

But what if you don’t have enough skills and/or desire to be a professional gamer and start making money on tournaments? Quite likely, you have a nice job and don’t want to quit it, yet still seek a chance to monetize your affection for gaming.

Luckily for you, there are still many ways to boost your income treating eSports just as a hobby. Here are the three of them which don’t require any specific skills other than gaming:

1.

Become a Live Streamer

Difficulty:

2/5

Min. investment:

$1000 - PC, $40 - headphones + headset mic, $40 - webcam.

If you play Dota 2, LoL, or CS:GO every day, why not share your experience with others? Live streaming is now more accessible than ever. Almost everyone who has decent hardware and due diligence can join the club. No wonder that some nonames eventually became new online celebrities along with Instagram models, Youtube bloggers, and the rest of similar folks.

There are two major platforms to monetize your streaming efforts: YouTube and Twitch.
YouTube allows you streaming whatever you want and raise money through donations and advertising.

Twitch is a higher-paying platform specialized in streaming games and introduced a “life” streaming section relatively recently. The service pays you $5 ($2.5 without a service fee) for each subscriber per month. So if you have, let’s say, 1,000 subscribers, you earn $2,500 per month without ad and donation revenue.

The seed capital for organizing your streaming place is not that high, though. For example, an average gaming PC like MSI Trident 3 is around $1,000 for basic configuration. You will also need headphones, mic, and a webcam to comment on your gaming. The set of basic headphones with mic + webcam costs no more than $100 — check out this list of headsets all below $60 as an illustration to this fact.

2.

Run an eSports Website

Difficulty:

4/5

Min. investment:

$100 per year for site maintenance

“But, website creation and maintenance do require tons of skills other than gaming. Web development at the very least” — you may say and will be partly right. However, now we have an amazing platform Wordpress.org along with other website builders which allow you to build a website from scratch without any coding experience. You’ll also find guides that explain how to set up a website in an hour using the aforementioned Wordpress.org.

All this was about website creation. To make the website bring you money, you need to build some authority around your domain. After achieving a stable increase in traffic, you can try to place ads, apply for referral programs or partner with sponsors.

To maintain any kind of website without hiring extra staff, you might acquire some knowledge in SEO, design, marketing, and copywriting. This is needed for more effective website promotion, and as a result, higher revenue. But, again, you can kick it off and play it by ear, as you need no more than $100 to register and host a website per year. That’s not high enough to deny yourself such an opportunity.

And when it comes to eSports, the website ideas are almost unlimited. You can publish the whole industry news or focus on a single game instead. Others go a different way and review gaming gear, eSports betting websites, or even marketing tips for eSports companies. Selling products is also possible — those can be accessed to limited eSports insights, industry reports, or even physical goods.

3.

Try eSports Betting

Difficulty:

1/5

Min. investment:

$10 for min deposit

The simplest, although the riskiest method to get some extra money in eSports is betting on tournaments. It resembles regular sports betting, where you use your expertise to determine the winner of the match or of the whole tournament. However, this activity is based on luck, so can’t be regarded as “making money” in the long-term.

There is also a surge in a phenomenon called skin gambling. The term implies almost the same process of betting on eSports matches or modified casino games, but with the only difference. Instead of using real currency to put in the virtual account, you deposit skins got from the popular games like CS:GO.

To participate in gambling session, you need to sign up and tie your account to the Steam profile where all your skins are stored. After that, you get access to the website’s selection of online casino games. For example, a roulette gambling session may look like this:

As you can see, this game of roulette has almost nothing to do with conventional online roulette games, using only a wheel without a table layout and presumably having different odds.

Skin gambling can be somehow lucrative, bearing in mind that most casual gamers don’t invest in skins and acquire them naturally while in game. But you should know that it can serve as a “gateway” to regular casino gaming, which can eventually turn into addiction with thousands of lost money. Stay aware of the possible consequences and bet responsibly.

What Else?

These methods are especially great for those who want to reconcile both primary occupation and gaming as a somehow profitable hobby. But nonetheless, it doesn’t mean you can’t make gaming your primary occupation without being a professional player.

There are job opportunities in the eSports that might be suitable for you even with your current skill set. You can be an NA eSports Coordinator at PUBG Corporation, data analyst at Wizards of the Coast, or head of marketing at Activision Blizzard. Some of the job positions require easy-to-gain skills to apply, e.g game tester, customer support representative, or junior social media manager.

If you have a seed capital and great financial expertise, you can buy eSports stocks or invest in gaming startups. This option is a bit tougher and riskier, but it also has higher returns if you treat the case wisely.