Right About Now with Ryan Alford - eSports Series ft. Tyler Endres

Episode Date: July 28, 2020

On this episode of the Radcast, Ryan sits down with Tyler Endres, founder and CEO of Esports Arena. This episode elaborates on Tyler's successful business model. Ryan and Tyler discuss several topics in this episode: The sense of community that comes from eSports tournaments. Influencers v. eSports. Twitch in the gaming community. Successful sponsorships. This episode is loaded with the business of eSports. Tell us what you think! Like, comment, and share your thoughts on this episode. Stay rad. Follow Ryan on Instagram @RyanAlford | Follow the Radcast on Instagram @the.rad.cast | Follow Tyler on Instagram @esa_tyler | Follow Esports Arena on Instagram @esportsarena or check out their website https://www.esportsarena.com/ If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. 

Welcome to the Radical Marketing Podcast. Here is your host, Ryan Alford. Hey guys, what's up? It's Ryan Alford. It is the Radcast Part 3 in our eSports series. It's getting good. I'm learning more than I knew, more than my time playing Xbox with the kids ever told me. And how big this business is, we're peeling back lots of layers to this onion. my time playing Xbox with the kids ever told me and how much,

how big this business is. We're peeling back lots of layers to this onion. And I'm really excited to have today's guest, Tyler Indris. Really appreciate you coming on Tyler. Yeah, no, I'm happy to, happy to be here. And like I said, thanks for reaching out. This is, this should be fun. Yeah. Looking forward to it. So let's get in right at it. So you're the founder and the CEO of Esports Arena. We'll get into the COVID impact. It's just kind of part of the necessary evil, if you so speak. But I definitely want to focus more on talking about kind of your history in esports, what led to starting the arena.

Just kind of like that that background that kind of led to where we are today if you could start there yeah so uh it's actually i mean it's one of it's not one of my favorite stories because it's just a natural progression as to how we started uh in esports and you know a lot of companies you'll see nowadays that start esports because they they like to trigger word they see it as an opportunity. And so they want to start something with an e-sports and a lot of companies have not been successful in doing so. And I think it's because they're just not a gamer themselves, or they don't really have that passion around gaming. They just have it around business. And so it's worked for me thus far. I wish I had a passion about business when

I first started this and less about gaming because maybe it would have been a bit more successful after the semester but uh to be honest yes when we first started out we uh a few buddies of mine from college um we love playing this game called halo 2 um by far i mean i think i to me it's so nostalgic and it's one of the greatest esports titles of all time um you know esports uh was before halo and all that stuff but you know i think halo was the first game i started was the first game that came with the original xbox it was yeah the original halo right halo combat evolved it was like there and and we used to play combat evolved too but that was before xbox live so we used to like send it was called xbox connect

dude we'd wait like 45 minutes to play one round of halo and it was just like that was our fix that was our fix it was so good yeah we'd be up till like you know two three four o'clock in the morning doing that but uh and so again like that's where it all sort of began was this camaraderie of playing halo and so then when we went to college um we turned to like our dorm and just sort of began was this camaraderie of playing halo and so then when we went to college um we turned to like our dorm and just sort of like this land center vibe and then uh pretty much had um had myself and my college roommate and his brother like we formed a team and then we were known as the best halo players on campus and so then they asked us if we wanted to host a tournament so we hosted a tournament and we had like 64 people show up so that's 16 teams of four in college i mean it was pretty great and we won and so then it was like because we hosted

the tournament and we won the tournament so i don't know i know yeah yeah you got the disease and the cure oh i don't, I don't know. Exactly. So we thought we were pretty good, and we were on the local level. And then MLG Anaheim came around. This was back in 2007. And we competed at MLG Anaheim, and we got middle of the road. So it was like, all right, well, we're really good at this local level, but on the pro level, how can we get better?

And there just wasn't enough tournaments for us to compete in to practice in because practicing online was was fine but a lot of times there was cheaters you got modded xboxes if someone had a better internet connection and they had a better you know host connection to the game so they had better shots um so all that all those variables uh didn't really exist on land when you played someone in the same room. And so we just thought to ourselves like, man, wouldn't it be so cool if there was a place that we could just go to and compete? Like we didn't want to go to a land center because land centers,

you know, still even today, land centers, aren't that cool, I guess. I mean, I don't want to like put land centers down because I used to go to land centers and I mean, they're fun, but like, it's, it's not one of those things that just like everyday persons go to land centers, right? It's just, it's just the ultimate gamers go to land centers. And so we're trying to cater to like this overall audience. And so we just wanted to go to a place that was cool that we could just compete and it didn't exist. Like nothing out there really existed at that time. and so once we left college

we just kept at it kept at it kept at it and uh when twitch uh sprung out i mean then the game changed then it was like all right now we have to do this um and so we were searching for some buildings here in orange county and stumbled upon this space in santa ana that we have it's this cool old school building built in 1922. Someone with your background right there with the brick. And so the building owner saw our PowerPoint and met us and just loved the concept and was like, look, I'll build this space for you.

And all I need you guys to do is just run your business out of here. So obviously we signed a lease and things, All I need you guys to do is just run your business out of here. So obviously, we signed a lease and things. But that step right there was, I think, the key part of us opening this business. Because look, we didn't have much money. We didn't have much money at all. We had an SBA loan that was worth $152,000. And to start a business with $152,000,

and the business that we're trying to start to scale of a 15,000-square-foot arena, you're not getting much. You're not getting far with that. There's, what, two months of your lease? There's two months of our lease, exactly. And so that was just our naivete when it came to running business. And, you know, but we've thus far been able to make it work. So that's, you know, our love for video games

and hosting our own tournaments back in the day is really what got us to open up our, our first sports arena. So we started, we had small beginnings, but now how many facilities, is it a franchise? Is it, talk to me a little bit about the nuts and bolts of the, how many facilities, the nuts and bolts of the business? Yeah, well, it's, it's not a franchise. And I don't know if it ever will be a franchise. It may or may not. I'm not entirely sure. But, you know, we're still learning, right?

Esports changes. It pivots on a dime sometimes when it comes to, you know, which games are going to be more popular, which game to invest in, which pros, which influencers, things like that. And so for me to franchise this model out when we're still trying to figure it out ourselves, it's been, I mean, I've literally been open in five years, September will be five years in Santa Ana. So, so for us, it's not franchise. I do, you know,

me and my investors group obviously own all the other locations. So we run them out right out of Santa Ana, California. obviously own all the other locations. So we run them out right out of Santa Ana, California. And we are at a total of 19 locations. So 18 Walmarts plus Orange County. So you guys have a hand in every location. Like I saw one in Raleigh, North Carolina, which is right up there from us. Yeah. So I've basically looked at that and uh i designed that whole

space and so everything you see there is is is what i've pictured esports arena to be and so yeah these uh these esports arenas that are inside of walmart are much smaller right like more cookie cutter arenas that we can send throughout the country as opposed to what we have in santa anna and what we did have in oakland however we did did just, you know, COVID has, I don't know if we talked about it, but it has made an impact. And so Oakland is, Oakland unfortunately had to shut down, but you know, it was, it was, it was before it's time, to be honest. I do think that we will start opening up larger arenas again,

but we want to get a network of these smaller ones out there first. Since you brought that up, the, you know, the Walmart aspect, let's, let's go there a little bit. You know, talk about how that came about. I mean, obviously it sounds like a natural extension of the business, you know, them wanting to, I mean, every large brand is getting into or talking about getting into, or should be talking about getting into, which is why we're having this series, uh, to kind of inform a lot of our listeners, which are, you know, kind of

mid to C-level executives and marketing and things like that. Um, but talk about that Walmart, uh, how that came about and kind of, you know, whatever details you can share on that. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's a good little stinger right there at the end. But, uh, if for us, it's, uh, Walmart, Walmart, um, I mean, some folks from Walmart had reached out to us from a mutual connection that we had. And, um, we thought, you know, literally, I thought they were just wanting to like sponsor an event that we were going to host or something like that. And then one individual came up, you know, he's a VP over there. He came down to Santa Ana, brought a team down to Santa Ana and took a look at our facility, liked the community vibe that we had, liked the look and feel that we had. And we just started talking more and more. And the question came about was, do you think that this would work inside a walmart store and i originally thought like no like there's no way honestly i literally it was like oil and water i just i thought like well look i'm esports arenas it's brand walmart's it it's brand and i

don't really think that they mesh well enough but then you know the more we talked about it the more we thought about it um you know obviously walmart's large large companies in the world they're not a bad company to be you know to be talking to and exactly i'm glad you i'm gonna pause right there i'm glad you wised up to that make it work tyler make it work as your uh i'm not your agent but if i was i would have said tyler we're gonna make this work buddy absolutely and it has been a it's been a game changer since for sure yeah um and and we did we you know we came to our senses and we looked at the way walmart sort of operates as

a company and how we could be at an arm's arm's length with these guys right so what they have is they have these areas in the front of these stores where typically they have like the mcdonald's or they'll have a an optic center like for the glasses yeah or they'll do nail salons hair salons banks things like that um so we were able to to fulfill a lease at some of those locations across the country and when we were first looking at this it was like all right well what stores we want to go to how big of a space do we need so we started off with five stores initially it's just running a pilot there and um and we saw you know once they were open we pretty much saw success right out the gates because it's just the coolest part about it is that the community of gamers don't necessarily care like where it is right as long as there's a community meetup happening

and it's on mutual ground with other people and things like that, the common denominator is gaming. And so I'll go to this space because my friends are going, because there's a meetup there, there's good competitors there. So I'll go no matter what. And the benefit of it being in a Walmart is free parking for one. Two, if you're hungry, there's usually like a McDonald's or some Subway or something like that in the store. And three, you can go grab a drink. You can go grab a seat. You can do whatever you want. So you're typically inside the Walmart.

And I don't necessarily have to have security. I don't have to really run my own electricity. I don't have to do any sort of crazy build-outs. All that stuff pretty much exists there. I don't have to do any sort of crazy build outs. All that stuff pretty much exists there. So it made it much easier for us to take this this model and cookie cutter it and then ship it across the country. And that's like I said before, has been a game changer and has seen ultimate success. The amount of foot traffic that we're bringing to the store is is is really good at the level of the specific customer that we're bringing. So you think of a gamer, that gamer, especially because Walmart individuals are kids.

They're either parents coming with their kids, so it skews much younger. But then we've got the cloud core gamer that's coming out on an hourly basis coming to our tournaments. So we're re-ranked anywhere from like a 13 to 30-year-old male demographic that's walking into a Walmart because there's an esports arena there. Typically, they would shop on Amazon. Typically, they would go to a micro center, Best Buy, whatever to buy the gaming equipment. But now they're going to the back of the store,

see if Walmart's got it, and they'll buy it right there. So it's a different customer that we're bringing to Walmart that they're enjoying. And again, just provides like an ultimate different experience for the Walmart shopper, which Walmart working with them for two years, two and a half years now, it's been one thing I've realized is that, I mean, they've legitimately, the customer is number one, the customer is always first. And if they can make a better experience for the Walmart shopper, then that's what, then they'll invest in that. And so that's what, you know, for e-sports arena, the fact that we are

providing a better experience for a Walmart shopper, I think that they like that a lot. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Is it, it would, what is the, you went there a little bit with the makeup 13 to 30. Is it maybe bringing a little more diversity and inclusion as well with maybe like some gamers that just don't have avenues normally for those kind of things? That's where my mind went, which seems like a total benefit that, um, you know, I'll be honest, I've spent five years trying to learn how to make a dollar in e-sports and, and today I'm still learning. And, um, and I think we're on the right track. We're on a very, I mean, before COVID hit, like, man, we were going to hit the peak of, and just like, and just start rolling downhill with how, with the momentum that we were getting and it still will come. It's just been at a pause um but but really what we saw in the beginning was when we had these larger influencers and larger

companies team up with us they had started realizing like this is so cool because you're offering an experience to a 15 year old or a 20 year old who can't afford a two thousand dollar gaming rig right i mean you figure a nice, a nice gaming PC is going to be like a nice one. I would say a nice, nice one, but like, it's like 1500 bucks, right? For a gaming rig. And then you have a monitor that you need at least 144 Hertz to play on. That's going to be two 50, $300 right there. And you want your gaming setup, your mouse, your keyboard, your headset, um, you know, all that's another a hundred dollars on top of that. So, I mean, you're, you're at $2,000 right there for like an ultimate setup. Um, and, and that's just, that's an investment. Whereas, whereas playing on an Xbox and playing on a PlayStation or Nintendo

switch, I mean, those are, that's a $300 investment. So hence the reason why console gaming is much more popular. Well, I'm going to say much more popular, much more accessible than a PC gaming. Uh, but we're offering that opportunity at five bucks an hour or a $10, $15 tournament pass that night for anyone to come in and compete. So if I love playing Fortnite, I'm 15 years old and I compete on my Xbox at home while I'm only hitting 60 frames per second on a TV screen, that's only 60 Hertz. That is much wider. And so now when I come to e-sports arena and I play on a PC grants, I'm still might be using a controller, but I put on

a PC I'm playing on a 24 inch screen, much more manageable to, to, to, to compete on. And it's at 240 Hertz. So now the frames per second that they're hitting, there's no, what we call screen tearing that happens when you move your mouse really quickly. Uh, it's like a stutter. Uh, there's no stutter. It's nice and smooth refresh rate. Um, and your frames per second are like 200, right? 200 frames per second, as opposed to 60 and a game like Fortnite with all the building and things like that.

The kids just eat it up at e-sports arena. So we're giving them this really ultimate competitive experience of competing inside a walmart or competing inside an esports arena um and uh and that's again what what they're paying for and it's cool because we're offering this opportunity to just just anyone to come and play so if you're good at the game but you can't afford the nice pc it doesn't matter you can still come to esports arena and prove how good you are there so the arenas is it i mean for all intents and purposes i don't there's so many complexities like you mentioned the changing nature of the games all the time and all that and i want to come back to that but for all intents and purposes is this and is this like an old the way for kids in 2020 to go to the arcade like or to go to or instead of going to you know i don't

know if there's a frankie's in california but like frankie's fun park for three hours they go to the arena and play i mean are we is it give me a reference for you know the arena players or the kids that come or i know it's varying ages, but yeah. Talk to me about that experience. So I think is it like a, is it like a Dave and busters or is it like, you know, there's like a Chuckie cheese analogy, things like that. Uh, it's, it's not, um, you know, one thing that we've really stayed true to and opening e-sports arena has been just, we're a place to compete. we are the home of competitive gaming right we want

to be your first step into esports to come and compete um typically if you want to come so our hours are like 3 p.m to 11 p.m right so it's only after school or after work hours and actually the most traffic times that we have are like 6 and 7 p.m and onward right so it's typically that means that you've worked your day job and now you're coming out to to compete um i like it it's an older demo then it's an older demo currently now it's a current because but what we're doing is we are transitioning this younger demo though because the parents are stopping by they're going holy smokes what is this i'm gonna bring my kid here my kid loves to play fortnite and now the parents are seeing like i want my kid to compete i want to

see how good he or she is yes and so and that's actually been really beneficial for us because to grab hold of a parent's wallet versus the 16 year old's wallet that's a much better that's a much better uh opportunity there to earn some cash um But really, I'd say the analogy is maybe like a bowling alley. Got it. I can go and just go play some bowling and have some fun. I may be terrible at bowling.

I competed in bowling. I don't know if that's something I should be admitting, but it was pretty fun. We won't hold that against you. Note down, Tyler Bowler. Never call it. Never call again. Okay. We're good.

Let's keep going. Jim Gaffigan. You have your own bag. You have your own bag. Jim Gaffigan's got a joke. He says, yeah, some people have their own bowling ball and their own shoes and no friends. I like bowling too.

So I will hold that to it. It's actually pretty fun. It is. It's fun. It's a niche sport. And if you're competitive at it, then you can really see the advantage of it. And so for me, it's like, you don't have to be that great of a bowler, but you can have a handicap. And then as you get better, the handicap helps you compete against all these other pro or not pro, but like better bowlers is a competitive aspect to it,

but a community aspect to it. you go every tuesday night you pay 20 bucks to compete in that league it's fun but you're still competing there's that competitive nature to it and so at night is the league nights but during the day you can either come and practice right pay pay for a lane to practice or or just pay to have some fun and so i'd'd say that, but I'd say that that is where esports arenas model really comes into play here is that we are more centered and focused around our competitive league nights that we have. That's what drives about 75 to 80% of our revenue. And then the hourly rates and then the bit of buyouts, things like that, that'll take

up the rest of the 20%. Talk about, you mentioned it earlier, I think anything on esports to not mention, and I know Google's involved now and Facebook and all those things, but Twitch. The impact that Twitch has had on esports and just the growth is just fascinating to me. When I first, and it's probably been five years i have a buddy who's who's big in this he's actually the voice of nba 2k scott cole um and lives here in greenville actually greenville south carolina scott if you're listening shout out to you uh he's actually on espn2 that's how the growth is. You're on ESPN2 every Tuesday night. It's crazy. But he mentioned to me, it was probably five

years ago, man. Twitch has been around I guess seven, eight years, maybe longer than that. I don't know. Maybe at its peak. Or when it started really blowing up. And he talked to me about Twitch and I'm like, do people really like to watch other people play? Like I, I just,

I didn't wrap my head around it then. Now I see it in just how, how, you know, much, how uninformed I was at the time, but like, what's your perspective on the impact of Twitch on gaming and kind of any impact that has on, on your, your side of things and the arena side well it's i mean again that's what sort of added fuel to the fire for us to start our business right was we can now monetize the same gameplay that someone is paying to play inside an esports arena so i'm now monetizing off the person that i'm monetizing off and so it's that that to us was a really good way to scale up our business and i think with the way that that

twitch twitch specifically has just really catered to um more that influencer personal streaming vibe because yeah don't get me wrong there's Counter-Strike tournaments, you know, what ESL has been able to do, what MLG has been able to do back in the day when, uh, Overwatch League, League of Legends, LCS, those numbers are staggering, right? Those numbers are absolutely insane. And it's, it's, those numbers are great because the production's there, the production's phenomenal. Um, and you can just watch it for free. I can pull up Twitch and I can just start watching this incredible content for free.

To me, if LCS World Championships or the International with Dota, that could be my Super Bowl. I get to sit down and just watch it and interact with friends and chat and all that sort of stuff like that's an ultimate experience because i love the game dota so i want to watch dota and the international these are the best players compete in dota and so that to me is a much better viewing experience and i don't really well i don't really play football i'm not like i don't have a favorite team but the super bowl's on and everyone just has a party so i I'll just go to a party, but I don't really care too much about watching the game. And so that's why the experience of watching competitive gameplay is so successful because so many people play video games. And so you want to watch the best.

The reason why Ninja had his peak was because Fortnite took this younger demographic, this high school demographic, just took them and said, hey, you're going to play our game because it's free. And then we're going to have these dances. We're going to have these skins. We're going to have this great model. It's about a royale model that's coming out the past, like, you know, three years now. And so it's still new to these console gamers. And so Ninja has been able to monetize off of that because he was the best at Fortnite. I mean, he was the best. And everyone else is still playing PUBG or they're still playing Overwatch, but he transitioned over to Fortnite and then totally gained all those followers and took it.

So Twitch in general, I think, really invests well into guys like Ninja and to guys like Nadeshot or these influencers that uh are just fun to watch they're good at the game and you feel you're supporting somebody if you're if you're again esports arena we've been able to monetize via sponsorships but we don't really monetize from subscribers or donations things like that because we're seen as a company and so being a company streaming on twitch is is much different than just being an individual streaming on Twitch. I'll donate $10 to an individual because I want them to give me a shout out. I want them to say my name or say whatever, say this funny comment that I had. And that is where the individuals can really gain and make a lot of money from this and become

influencers. And I think there is a difference between esports and influencers. Influencers are great because they do compete in tournaments and whatnot, but a lot of times they're signing on at 9am and playing for 12 hours or eight hours a day and they're competing. Don't get me wrong, but esports is an ecosystem. And I think these influencers are a piece of the ecosystem, but I think that they're really making the most of my life just because they're fun to watch. They're funny people. And surprisingly enough, they should be good at the game too. But yeah, Twitch has definitely changed it and made gaming just something of a cool topic to talk about. Because back when I was in college, I wasn't updating my Facebook status saying,

I just played eight hours of Halo 2 last night or eight hours of Call of Duty. You didn't do that because girls didn't think that was cool, right? But now you can say it and with the way Twitch has created a community around it and a lifestyle around it, Twitch has done a lot for gaming for sure. Is there any hope for me that – and I know there probably are, but in general I know there's not but uh but wanting like a street fighter 2 tournament or like mortal combat like that's that's what you like my my fingers i have arthritis still you know from the button mashing of street fighter 2

with uh and by you know kicking in bice's ass yeah you know street fighter 2 turbo my brother and i bought that from walmart back in the day i remember when we first got it my mom and taking us to that and my brother and i were so pumped we were like one of the first ones to have street fighter 2 turbo on super nintendo and we were walking out of the parking lot going can't wait to go home and play street fighter 2 turbo like bragging like people were all like oh dude they got it and so my brother and i always say that. Turbo. No, so every Wednesday night, we were hosting Wednesday night fights with a company called Level Up Gaming.

And one of the legends in the scene, Alex Valle, a Street Fighter legend, hosts it. And so we get roughly 300 people plus every Wednesday night coming out and playing Street Fighter, playing Super Smash Brothers, playing Tekken, playing Mortal Kombat. So that's all there. And then we would occasionally have retro tournaments to where, yeah, Street Fighter 2 or Street Fighter 2 Turbo would be featured game that night to come and compete. So it's out there for sure. Where to find it is a challenge if you're not a part of the scene. You know, you got to typically go to the tournament platforms

and just search in your area. Like Smashg is really good for the fighting game community so you go to like that website uh and then search for like you know the type of games and things i had like the spin kick fireball combo that you nobody wanted any part of yeah yeah you and everyone else yeah yeah fighting games is the best because that's again it's that's a one v one it's a mono we mono so it's it's like hey it's like kind of money matches right i'm gonna put 20 bucks down i know i'm gonna beat you and stuff right so like that's where i think the real competitive nature comes out and why it is successful so come out to wednesday night fights and let's see it let's go when i get out to uh ocali I'll make a stop in once all this craziness sells down.

What's the, where's everything headed? And like where, you know, I always have been asking all our guests this, you know, maybe your perspective for how I know how the Nikes and Walmarts and Adidas and Monster Energies get involved. They throw money at it. And you've got to be organic. I think they're all doing a pretty good job, the big brands. But the medium-sized businesses that want to leverage this target and get involved, any pointers, tips, perspective on ways accessible for you know the brands that don't have you know hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions to invest in it yeah i just get involved

or get in some sponsorship or stuff like that well so like that sponsorship back in the day with esports i mean if you look four or five years ago i think that sponsorship sponsorship right now is if you look at what it was four or five years ago to what it is now, and like you said, Adidas, Nike, and even Walmart have sort of created this organic way to get involved with esports, which is fantastic. Back in the day, it was, hey, we're doing this big event. We're renting out this convention center, renting out this hotel bar, and it's going to cost me tens of thousands of dollars. So I need to recoup that cost. So I'm going to recoup it with sponsorship dollars to help pay for this event and this event started

getting then there was this event but this event this event this event this event all over the country and so now you're competing against you're competing against esports and that was you know once it became like what's counter-strike and you know league of legends and overwatch and all these all these bigger events started coming out and then if we were going to host a counter-Strike and League of Legends and Overwatch and all these bigger events started coming out. And then if we were going to host a Counter-Strike tournament, well, we had to make sure we got the pros to come out to our tournament so we can get the viewership. Because I need this viewership to leverage sponsorship sales. And if I didn't hit that viewership because these Counter-Strike pros

went to this tournament over here, now all of a sudden I'm not getting that viewership and my sponsors are unhappy and so a lot of sponsors i think became very unhappy in the beginning because they would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars or tens of thousands of dollars to sponsor an event to pay for the to pay for the event essentially right and then the event didn't yield the results that it wanted to because it was too competitive there's so many other events going on at that same time. And so the certain weekends were like, Oh,

we have to do it this weekend because there's no other counter-strike event happening this weekend or Northern league legends that happens weekend. So I think a lot of sponsors got, you know, had a bad taste in their mouth for these sports originally. And also to e-sports was being run by 25 year olds. So 25 year olds who know how to run businesses are few and far between and speaking from experience, um, with myself. And so, um, sponsors right now, I would say, you know, and I'm what, what, what,

what I've been able to really think about and able to accomplish has been consistency. So if you can grow with a sponsor, I think that that's key. And if you can develop a concept in which what we're doing, for instance, is we're starting our semi-professional ecosystem to where we are going to be finding these everyday players and who, you know, again, are good players, but don't really have that streamer following, don't really have the, you know, haven't won in a lot of tournaments because they don't really know where to go to these tournaments. So we want to provide a tournament space for everyday players to become pros. Yeah. So because we've got, you know, decent connections,

we've been able to solidify a lot of larger brands and medium-sized brands to sponsor esports arenas ecosystem that is a consistent series of events to where we're finding pro players and we're actually going to be sponsoring these pro players by giving them a brand name to represent so uh like pringles for instance if you want to be the pringles player you have to compete in our series of events and then we'll you get to don the pringles jersey and actually i have one probably just thinking about it i'm like literally right there i could probably bring it let me show you real quick yeah oh nice literally mr pringle here that's sweet kind of like a hockey jersey it is it is have you noticed in my background i'm a i'm a hockey fan so oh yeah except on that that's the reason it's hockey stuff.

But I think for a sponsor to get involved with something, don't just sponsor an event because a lot of times it may not yield the results that you want. And the return on investment can be pretty low. who is pretty authentic to the scene and can bring your logo and your brand to life, as opposed to just slapping it on a screen and getting tens of thousands of dollars to help pay for this event, then that's a better opportunity for a sponsor to, to, to grow with the tournament organizer, to grow with the brand, to grow with an influencer, I think is, is way as sponsored as to be. And a lot of times, like I'd be willing to do things that are like, are you have any product? Great. We'll sponsor your product, but you give us a piece of your product. So therefore you don't necessarily have to have,

I'd seen this a lot in product with podcasts, right? Like me undies and, um, you know, um, what's the dollar shave club, things like that. Like you get, you get a piece of whatever you sell based off of your promo code and things like that and i think that's a that's a really cool way to market because if it's if the product's going to sell the products going to sell and if if you know the radcast is pushing that product or if esports arena is pushing that product and i'm saying use promo code esports then all of a sudden like yes i'm getting that revenue and i would i would do that all day long because if i believe

in that product i think that product's going to sell i think that's a great way for sponsors to to get involved because it's similar to podcasting right like podcast sort of niche but at the same time it's a massive audience there and there's a ton of competition too so i do think that esports and podcasting are actually very similar is um any team sponsorship for you know know, the overseas sports arena? Are you building teams? I mean, you kind of talked a little bit about that saying you're bringing these mid level players and trying to get into a platform, but I mean,

is, is, is real building teams in your future or, or part of the plan? Um, I'm not going to say no. Um, but I think that, I think that yeah there is there is an opportunity for us to to i mean we have so many players that just walk into our facilities and we've had a lot of players that turn pro and they'll sign with 100 thieves and sign with face clan and sign with tsm whatever it is but they've started at esports arena because look there's one thing again to play at home and we talked about earlier but i would never take it with a home at home gaming experience like that to me is just the ultimate

gaming experience for sure but it's different when you're on a stage and other people are watching you and you have to compete you know against all these other people like that that's that's the testament of a true competitor whether or not you're she's you know really good at the game or not because you can be good in your own home for sure because you're comfortable there yeah can you be good in an uncomfortable situation and i think that that's where esports arena comes into play here so if i'm already finding these pro players uh and i'm giving them a start in their career i'd like that first of all and i could and as long as i can continue to make dollars and cents from just that model then then I'll just I'll stick to what's good right if it's not broken I'll fix it

but if there's an opportunity for me to find a pro player say wow this kid's gonna be a superstar you know two years from now then I then yeah there's a possibility of esports arena signing this player yeah uh and and giving uh you, him or her a chance to succeed and, and hopefully benefiting from what they're benefiting from too. Yeah. Is what's the, is it just like get the pandemic over as fast as possible? I didn't want to spend much time on this, you know, but yeah. You know, to ignore it. It's depressing. It's depressing. Yeah, exactly.

It's not good, good for uh radio or uh you know two men crying is not good for a podcast but uh yeah um but for real like what's what's it look like it's it's rough it is absolutely rough i think um you know when it first started i I was definitely naive. I thought like, okay, wow. So I just got my, I just bought myself two months of extra time to prepare for our semi-professional league that we're calling Series E. And then I realized that, you know, that's, that's not the case, right? A couple of months, more months. And then people's thoughts of normalcy is different. And, you know, e-sports arena, we, we sanitize things down, right. You know, typically, because no one likes to wear the same headset that someone else just wore,

but now no one likes to wear the same headset that someone else wore. Right. Like now that's, that's a big thing. No one wants to use the same mouse that someone else used. And that's what we offer. I mean, we're a land center you know by day and and you know you come out and you compete and i think that like yeah we push the pause button for sure and we are waiting for things to to flatten out and i i follow mark cuban on a lot, and I think that he's obviously smart, right? And smart when it comes to business. And so he had said something about, you know, this is a time for you as a company to, you know, either stay in business or grow, right? And I've been going stir crazy in my mind.

I was just thinking like, well, what's the next thing? How can I get out of this? Or what can we invest in? Or how can? Like, how can I get out of this? Or what can we, what can we invest in? Or how can I be stronger out of this? And I think that for e-sports arena, we, we've had a lot of competitors come into the scene and try to do what we're doing. And, you know, we've, we've taken punches to the stomach and all sorts of stuff of losing, you know, contracts and losing people, but it's, we've, we're still here. And as long as I can say that we took that punch in the gut

of COVID, but we're still here, then I think that we're, we'll be much better off and much more successful post COVID whenever that may be than any of the competitors that are out there. I've got an opportunity with Walmart, right, to expand into hundreds of stores or hundreds of locations. I mean, they got 4,200 stores across the country or something like that. So there's a bunch of stores. So as long as I can focus on what our strength is

and what the competitor's strengths have and invest into that, then post COVID, if we're, if we're strategically placed at the right time, then I do think that we can come out of this much stronger than, than we were going into it. So, um, and that's where, that's where I'm trying to focus in on is, is focused on what's going to set us up more for success post COVID that our competitors aren't doing doing or that the competitors are scrambling, trying to figure out as well and why we're going to be more successful out of the gates. I think that's a great mindset. I think that's where the most successful people are,

is focusing on what they can control and staying focused on that. And look, 4,200 stores. Hey, that's a lot of... You can stay busy just with that. Building out even half that. 2,000 stores building out. That'd be wild. That would honestly be wild. To see the brand that we just created because we're a couple of buddies

that just love to play video games. To be a nationwide brand that a 12-year-old kid who sees and goes like, what is that? I want to become a pro gamer because of e-sports arena, because of my time there like that, that that's a dream, ultimate dream for sure.

My last question, Tyler, I asked, I've asked every guest this. So I have four boys under the age of 11 and they all are gamers of some sort. Um, is this a legitimate career path? They play sports too. So they're in and out. I think if they play sports for sure, because the thing is, they have that competitive nature for sure. Um, it is, I do think that there's the, you know, cause here's the thing, like,

I'm not going to be LeBron James. Sure. I'm six, three, but I'm not, I'm not, you know, I, I'm not necessarily built for basketball. I'm not as physically trained as well for that. So I think that a lot of people think that they can become a pro gamer. Right. And a lot of, a lot of dads, a lot of parents go, Oh, my son, he's he was once in time, like number one in the world at this, or this or something like that i mean everyone loves to fluff up their kids and pump their tires right and so i think that for for that it's there as long as as a parent you can support it but at the same time like you got to go to these competitions and that's like i said before it's like competing at home is is one thing but going out and competing on a stage with other people watching

and it's top 10 and you're sitting there and you've got four or five people just behind you that are watching you to see how good you are, if you can remain focused on your game and not let that distract you, I think there's a real shot at being a solid competitor and winning some money. Don't get me wrong. I'm not going to be a pro bowler, but I want some money bowling. And I think that as long as you can pinpoint whether or not, yes,

I'm good enough to go that path to become a pro, you can figure that out pretty early on. I'd say about 15, 16, you can really figure that out, whether or not you can be a pro gamer or not. So it's worth investing in now. They're under 11. In other words, every millionaire has

six streams of revenue or income. It can be one of those. It can be one, exactly. But not the one. Maybe not the one. It's tough just because so many people play video games, right?

So many people play video games, but also too, if your kids love it. And same time, I loved it because of the community aspect. Sounds like all four of them, they've got, you know, they could all be competing with each other, which is really cool. They got friends that they compete with. I was, you know, I love the fact that if,

if a kid's playing video games in his basement and he's that typical, you know, gamer profile, drinking Mountain Dew, eating Doritos in the basement, you know, whatever. I, I, I hate that analogy, but you know, a lot of my brain went right there. I mean, I saw that guy, right. With a taco, a taco bell taco, a Mountain Dew slushy. And yeah, that's him. That's your stereotypical gamer, right? I mean, it's, it's,

it's so terrible because that's no longer it. Right. But there are, there are those folks out there and there's a lot of introverts in gaming. Right. And the moment that that introvert steps out from his at-home gaming experience and then finds a friend at e-sports arena or finds a friend at a land center, then it changes, changes your perspective on e-sports, changes your perspective on gaming and gives you an outlet. And you find what he's interested in and, you know, type of food and restaurants they go to. It's something like that.

So it is, it's a camaraderie, it's a community. And that to me is, is the best part about gaming and e-sports. And as long as I think your, your four boys can find solitude in that and find new friendships, I think that that's, it's, it's worth investing in at that point. I love it, Tyler, man. I really appreciate your time. It's been great talking with you. Um, I think we could do it for a couple hours probably, but I'm going to let you, uh, it's been fun. Tell, tell people, uh, where they can kind of keep up with all things esports arena, all things Tyler.

Yeah, so I know. One thing I haven't really done is built out my own personal platform. I usually try to stay behind the scenes. You got to get out there, man. You got to get out there. I got another. ESA underscore Tyler on Instagram. I think it's ESA Tyler on Twitter is where you can find me.

You'll just get a lot of Esports Arena content and Anaheim Ducks content from me. That's pretty much all you'll get. But I typically try to, I'll occasionally throw my opinions out there, which I'd like to do more of. But all things Esports Arena, it's at Esports Arena on all social handles. And then our website, esportsarena arena.com that'll show you all of our locations uh where we're where we're at we are open in some locations i just call ahead of time uh limited hours right now and limited occupancy right now but uh join our online

tournaments because they're they're awesome we're doing a lot with apex right now valorant brand new game that came out with uh with riot games uh and we're gonna be bringing fortnite back and maybe doing some stuff with halo again so um exciting stuff coming up and we'd love to support so i really appreciate uh you guys reaching out this has been a lot of fun appreciate it tyler all right guys it's been episode three in the esports series really praise appreciate tyler coming on you heard where to follow him keep up with everything esports arena follow along with us at radical underscore results on instagram or the radcast b.rad.cast on instagram and we'll see you next time to learn more about radical visit radical.company on the web

or follow Ryan on Instagram at Ryan Alford. Thanks for listening to the Radical Marketing Podcast.