Aaron Welch, president of Iron Gaming, talks in the company’s offices.Video gamers like playing games, and they also like watching other people play video games. But so far, the business world has yet to decipher a way to strike it rich through televised professional video game tournaments.
That may be about to change, thanks to Chattanooga’s ultra-fast broadband infrastructure, and a new deal between the city-owned EPB and a young entrepreneur dedicated to the pursuit of play.
Unlike traditional sports, which generate billions of dollars and are broadcast on all major TV networks, professional video games – now called eSports – have long been relegated to a niche market, despite the fact that more than half of the U.S. plays games in some form or fashion, said Aaron Welch, head of Iron Gaming.
“We joke about revolutionizing the video game world,” he said Thursday. “But to revolutionize something, it would have to be organized in the first place.”
Welch, whose company orchestrates amateur gaming tournaments across the U.S., says that though the demand is there, nobody’s figured out how to duplicate the big-time success of professional sporting leagues. Nobody but him.