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PAGE<br />
7<br />
SOCCER<br />
HOW<br />
NAFTA<br />
CANSAVE<br />
FIFA<br />
TRADE TENSIONS between<br />
the three members of the<br />
North American Free Trade<br />
Agreement (NAFTA) may be<br />
at the highest levels in recent<br />
memory, but that didn’t<br />
deter the voting committee<br />
of soccer’s governing body<br />
FIFA from awarding the 2026<br />
World Cup to the U.S., Canada,<br />
and Mexico.<br />
Representatives of the<br />
winning bidders promised<br />
FIFA its World Cup would generate<br />
a record $11 billion in<br />
profit, not to mention countless<br />
dollars for the hospitality<br />
and advertising industries.<br />
Brands in particular will be<br />
looking to capitalize on the<br />
first men’s World Cup on the<br />
continent since 1994, hosted<br />
solely by the U.S., which was<br />
the most financially successful<br />
tournament in the<br />
competition’s history. For this<br />
year’s World Cup in Russia,<br />
long-serving advertisers<br />
Sony and Emirates declined<br />
to renew contracts with FIFA,<br />
which was rocked by a corruption<br />
scandal in 2015. The<br />
lure of NAFTA-bloc consumers<br />
in 2026 could give those<br />
companies, along with any<br />
others on the fence, reason to<br />
reconsider such a stance.<br />
With the competition<br />
expanding from 32 teams to<br />
48 in 2026, the event is bound<br />
to reward any brand willing to<br />
invest in FIFA. —ARIC JENKINS<br />
BALLS: MIKHAIL MISHCHENKO— GETTY IMAGES; TROPHY: MICHAEL REGAN— FIFA VIA GETTY IMAGES; FANS: ANDREW CULLEN— REUTERS<br />
Electronic Sports,<br />
Real Money<br />
A recent legal ruling could level up interest in<br />
e-sports. By Jonathan Sperling<br />
ODDSMAKERS REJOICED in May when the<br />
GAMING<br />
U.S. Supreme Court decided to strike<br />
down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection<br />
Act, paving a way for states to legalize sports betting.<br />
Gambling on sporting events has come a long way<br />
in the more than 25 years in which PASPA was law.<br />
E-sports—that is, competitive computer gaming—has<br />
-<br />
quickly risen to become one of the premier vessels for<br />
sports betting, and<br />
with its rise come<br />
questions on how the<br />
ruling will afect the<br />
future of the industry.<br />
“For e-sports<br />
betting, the PASPA<br />
decision opened the<br />
door for any meaningful<br />
traction in<br />
the U.S.,” says Chris<br />
Grove, the managing<br />
director of Eilers<br />
& Krejcik Gaming,<br />
an industry research<br />
firm. “You never see<br />
[game] publishers<br />
get anywhere close to<br />
betting unless there<br />
is a tightly regulated<br />
market.”<br />
In a report that<br />
analyzed the intersection<br />
of gambling<br />
and e-sports, Grove<br />
projected that the<br />
total value of money<br />
and in-game items<br />
wagered on major<br />
e-sports titles would<br />
hit $12.9 billion by<br />
2020, with more<br />
than 6.5 million<br />
consumers placing<br />
wagers. (For comparison,<br />
the total size<br />
of the legal sports<br />
betting market in<br />
Nevada was $4.8 billion<br />
in 2017.)<br />
In terms of future<br />
dangers coming to<br />
e-sports as a result of<br />
the ruling, underage<br />
gambling and<br />
damage to competitive<br />
integrity could<br />
rise, but no more<br />
than they would in a<br />
gray market, according<br />
to Bryce Blum, a<br />
founding partner at<br />
firm ESG Law, which<br />
represents more than<br />
25 Western e-sports<br />
organizations.<br />
Says Blum: “We<br />
need to accept the<br />
fact that betting on<br />
e-sports is going to<br />
happen whether we<br />
like it or not and<br />
actively become part<br />
of the solution.”<br />
www.t.me/velarch_official<br />
17<br />
FORTUNE.COM // JULY.1.18
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