E-Sports: Economics & Management

Exam number: 6825

Semester: from 1st semester

Duration of the module: One semester

Form of the module (i.e. obligatory, elective etc.): elective

Frequency of module offer: Irregularly

Prerequisites: To register for the seminar you have to send an E-Mail to Benti@europa-uni.de with your Matriculation number and study program until April 11, 2021.
Afterwards, you will be registered automatically by our chair in the Moodle system. You cannot enroll for this course via the Moodle system by yourself!
Capacity limit: 24 students –first come first serve! We reserve some places for Erasmus students and students from other faculties and study programs.
- Knowledge in micro- and macroeconomics, math, statistics, and econometrics.
- Some knowledge about sports or e-sports.
- Students should be able to run and interpret OLS regressions. Knowledge of Excel or statistical software such as “R” or STATA is required.

Applicability of module for other study programmes:
Obligatory or elective in other study programmes. For further information check regulations of the study programme.

Person responsible for module: Prof. Dr. Georg Stadtmann

Name of the professor: Prof. Dr. Georg Stadtmann

Language of teaching: english

ECTS-Credits (based on the workload): 3

Workload and its composition (self-study, contact time):
Contact time (lecture, tutorials, seminar etc.) 28 h; self-study: 152 h

Contact hours (per week in semester): 2

Methods and duration of examination:
- Part 1: Team presentation - presentation of chapters of the text book (weight: = 30 %).
- Part 2: Team work -Three assignments on selected papers (weight: 3 * 10 % = 30 %).
- Part 3: Final individual assignment (weight: 40 %): Deadline 30.06.2021.

The final grade results from the weighted average of the single graded parts.

Part 1: Team presentation
- Form a team of 2 students and select one speaker.
- Select three preferred chapters from the text book to prepare for presentation.
- Communicate the formed group and the topic preferences to Benti@europa-uni.de until 20.04.2021. Afterwards, we assign one topic for each team. We try our best to assign first preferences. Confirmation of the assigned topic and date of presentation for each team is communicated on 21.04.2021.
- Students should afterwards prepare a 30 minutes presentation. Presentations should be divided among both students (15 minutes per each person). The presentation slides should be sent to Benti@europa-uni.de two days before the presentation.
- Presentations take place from 27.04.2021 to 26.05.2021.
- After each presentation, 15 minutes are allotted for Q&A and discussion.

Part 2: Team work
- Teams formed for part 1 should be maintained for the team work.
- During the course of the semester, students should prepare a summary of three selected papers. The papers to be summarized are distributed to each group.
- Students should write 2 pages summary of the paper received.
- Students would have about 7 days to complete each of the three assignments. Students are thus required to form their group ahead of time, organize themselves and start working on the assignment as soon as assignments are distributed.

Team work 1: Receive April 21st; Turn in 09:59 AM April 28th
Team work 2: Receive May 5th; Turn in 09:59 AM May 12th
Team work 3: Receive May 18th; Turn in 09:59 AM May 25th

Students should turn in the assignment BEFORE (not after) the deadline via Viadrina E-Mail. Even the minute counts! Only one student sends an E-Mail to Benti@europa-uni.de, with emails of all students inserted on CC.

Part 3: Final individual assignment
- Every student has to prepare a 5 pages summary and comparison of selected papers.
- As this is an individual assignment, cooperation between students is not allowed. Each student is graded based on the submitted summary.
- Students should work on the final individual assignment and turn in the final work on 30.06.2021 at 11:59 AM (mid of the day) by sending an E-mail to Benti@europa-uni.de. Even the minute counts!

Emphasis of the grade for the final grade: Please check regulations of the study programme

Aim of the module (expected learning outcomes and competencies to be acquired):
After successfully completing the course, students should be able to:
- Understand scientific writings and interpret findings in a short and precise way
- Grasp a good understanding of selected Esports topics
- Deepen understanding of the business and economics perspective of Esports.
- Capture important aspects of recent literature on the topic
- Identify possible areas of further research on the topic

Contents of the module:
- E-sport and gaming
E-sports describes the competitive playing of digital content, specifically video and computer games. The social, political and scientific relevance of E-sports has grown exponentially in recent years. As an interdisciplinary subject, E-sport incorporate studies on areas of economics, the economic system and management.

- Sports economics
"Sports economics” theoretical base is nested heavily in theoretical and empirical microeconomic analysis with far reaching applications. Sports economics modules offer a range of transferable and specific skills that can be applied to a range of job opportunities, particularly in the ever- growing sports and leisure industries, local government and tourism.
The central theme that characterizes sports economics is that competing teams must co-operate, to some degree, for a meaningful schedule of matches to take place. This gives rise to two terms: uncertainty of outcome and competitive balance. Specifically, the attractiveness of a given fixture will be enhanced if the outcome is uncertain; matches which are foregone conclusions will be less attractive in the long term to paying spectators, as well as to the media. Thus, it is in the interest of a league to sustain fan interest for as long as possible by providing fixture lists between equally matched teams.
Mechanisms to promote team equality vary. Typically, European leagues are merit-based; vertical hierarchies enable poorer performing teams from a higher division to be replaced by better performing teams from a lower division through a process of promotion and relegation. In sports such as football and rugby union, the very top teams in the highest division also have the opportunity to compete against the best foreign teams in European competition.”

Dr Andy Cooke, Nottingham Trent University
http://www.studyingeconomics.ac.uk/module-options/sports-economics/

Teaching and learning methods:
Seminar, group presentation and discussions

Literature (compulsory reading, recommended literature):
Text book
Hedlund, David; Fried, Gil; & Smith, Rick (Eds.). (2020). Esports Business Management. Human Kinetics Publishers.

E-sports
Steinkuehler, Constance (2020). Esports research: Critical, empirical, and historical studies of competitive videogame play. Games and Culture 15 (1), 3-8.
Reitman, Jason G.; Anderson-Coto, Maria J.; Wu, Minerva; Lee, Je Seok; & Steinkuehler, Constance (2020). Esports research: A literature review. Games and Culture 15 (1), 32-50.

Diversity & Success in eSports
Petr Parshakov, Pete; Coates, Dennis; & Zavertiaeva, Marina (2018). Is diversity good or bad? Evidence from eSports teams analysis. Applied Economics 50 (47), 5064-5075.
DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2018.1470315

The business model pattern behind Fortnite
Osterwalder et al. (2014): Value Proposition Design.
Schöber, Timo; Stadtmann, Georg (2020). Fortnite: The business model pattern behind the scene. Die Unternehmung 74(4), 426-444.

Further information:
- Please use the program LaTex for the seminar paper & presentation.
- Students have to follow the usual rules with respect to academic honesty. Especially, we expect students not to use any material (Solutions from previous classes, papers written for different classes) without referencing appropriately.
- Registration via E-Mail required.