For any sport to be successful it requires not only an established ‘Hard Core’ following but also an appeal to a wider and perhaps less knowledgeable fan base. For example Rugby Union football can be enjoyed as a spectator sport without the spectator having a profound understanding of the game mechanics and strategic depth (although a basic understanding of the sport and its laws is advised!). Positive media awareness and coverage through television, internet video broadcasting, internet audio broadcasting and websites dedicated to eSports information provide further examples of the growing public awareness of the challenges and enjoyment presented by eSports both as a participant and a viewer to matches between more skilled professional participants.

Many websites are already available which are professionally run and often fully sponsored by the industry surrounding computer games. Examples include:




http://www.esreality.com
ESReality is one of the most well known and popular eSports coverage sites available. Run in a manner similar to that of a democracy in that any user can post news, reviews, articles, demos and forum threads. This enables the site to be accessible to those of any level of interest in eSports. ESReality was originally created under the name of XSreality in 2000 by three highly successful eSports athletes Sujoy Roy, Harvey Migotti and Amir Haleem. Sujoy Roy was one of the original professional gamers and although now retired from competitive gaming continues to support the eSports community by running tournaments. He also has plans for the development of UK gaming centres in Birmingham and London.




http://www.gotfrag.com/
GotFrag originally started out as a purely Counter-Strike news site, but expanded to cover all the most popular eSports games played today. The site includes the availability of subscriptions to various services, including GameVision which is a streaming movie theatre; GameSense which is a statistical database for eSports and GotGear an online shop.




http://www.sk-gaming.com/
SK Gaming is an extremely famous eSports organisation with teams in various different games. This website is media orientated and provides news, features, forums and demos. They also have subscriber options which allow the reader to access more detailed information about the teams.




http://www.replays.net/
Replays.net is a Korean news coverage site which covers strategy games popular in Korea such as Warcraft 3 and Starcraft.




http://www.fragbite.se/
Fragbite is a Swedish news site dedicated to all eSports.



http://www.prizefight.com/
During the late 1990’s television media coverage of eSports and other forms of computer games began to appear on British television. A current television programme featuring eSports competitions is ‘Prize Fight TV’. It first started broadcasting on July 14 2006 on Sky television in a prime time slot on channel 146. The programme shows live matches from professional gaming leagues, with commentary and post-match analysis. Players win money by participating in league table format and also get the chance to be shown on television. This is a significant step towards eSports becoming more popular amongst mainstream sports fans. If this vehicle is successful then the rapid growth in the popularity of eSports over the last twenty years will be multiplied considerably.

Paul Sulyok a representative of Prize Fight TV was asked in an interview for his opinions on whether electronic sports will ever be as popular as ‘real’ sports. He included in his reply:

“I think if you did a poll right now you'd find that there are probably more people who participate in e-sports at this very moment in time than those who participate in 'real sports'. I firmly believe that e-sportsmen and gamers in particular get a very rough ride - they don't get sufficient support, they don't get enough backing and if you look to Singapore, Singapore have just signed off e-sports as a national sport. So if you are going to, say, Dallas in a big national competition and you're a Singaporean team, Singapore National Lottery picks up the tab. That's not happening in Britain. It's that level of support that we need to do.
There's been a lot of noise in the press recently about e-sports being pushed to be recognised by the Olympic committee for the Beijing Olympics. I'd emphasise as well, if people consider Snooker a sport, Darts a sport, Curling an international sport represented at the Olympics, then surely the skill level someone displays when they're playing a computer game should also be recognised.”
[CVG. (2006). Prize Fight TV. Available: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=143808. Last accessed 12 June 2006.]

Coverage of eSports is also considerable in the printed media with specialist magazines available catering to all levels of eSports participant.