At its NewFront event, the gaming-centric digital media company Machinima announced the upcoming launch of Mach 1, a new agency designed to help brands connect with gaming and eSports audiences. And, like other NewFront presenters this year, Machinima announced a data-driven advertising initiative: Machinima Preferred, a new programmatic network, will use the company’s Fan Segmentation models, along with quality and brand safety data from the analytics firm OpenSlate, to target gamers.
The company also produced stats from a study it commissioned from SuperData, a gaming-oriented market research company: Over 188 million people will watch competitive gaming this year. Worldwide revenue for eSports is projected to total $892.8M in 2016, up 19% year-over-year. And the total worldwide market for eSports will be $910M this year, and is projected to grow to $1.3 billion by the end of 2019.