Winter Olympics

Global survey says sports execs oppose esports in Olympics

Published Sep. 25, 2018 11:44 a.m. ET

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — A global survey of sports industry executives shows 57 percent oppose Olympic status for video gaming.

Audit firm PwC says more than 400 sports industry professionals from 42 countries answered an online questionnaire for its annual survey. The findings were discussed Tuesday at the Olympic Museum, where the IOC hosted an esports conference in July on possible Olympic status for the booming games market.

The PwC survey asked "Is esports an Olympic sport?": 28 percent said "no, because esports does not qualify as 'sport'" and 29 percent said esports should grow independently of the Olympics.

A further 26.7 percent said esports must first unify under a single governing body, and 10.4 percent said esports should join "as soon as possible." Almost 6 percent said they did not know or abstained.

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