Top managers in esports – what they do, what they can do, and where can you learn it

Who is an esports organization manager?

In the classical sense, a manager of an esports organization is a person who determines the trajectory of the club’s development, manages teams from different disciplines as a whole, distributes allocated funding, controls legal issues and seeks to develop an esports project as a business unit. However, this is a rather flexible position, the list of tasks for which is usually determined individually with each specific employee.

Most often, the manager of an esports organization is a position that exists only in large structures. Not every tag can afford a wide staff, so often all the responsibilities of an organization’s manager are performed by the CEO (from the English Chief Executive Officer, “Chief Executive Officer”). By the way, in British English, this abbreviation even has a suitable synonym: Managing Director or MD, that is, in a free translation, a certain managing director.

An organization manager is a fairly high position in the hierarchy of an esports company, in fact, he is one of its main managers. Therefore, reaching this stage in a career implies either a long journey within the organization, or coming into the structure from the outside – in the role of a competent specialist with experience. An organic promotion usually occurs as a team manager in a discipline.

At the same time, the manager of an esports organization and a team are completely different positions. Working directly with the staff, the employee is maximally immersed in organizational issues and ensuring internal order in a particular discipline. The club manager needs to focus on business strategies and integrated human resource management.

In recent years, esports organizations have increasingly hired competent managers from companies not directly related to eSports. For example, the general manager of Virtus.pro Sergey Glamazda was previously responsible for the development of new directions in the Russian office of Nielsen. After appearing in VP, he managed to make several effective decisions, thanks to which he even received the nickname “Genius»In the community. At the same time, at first he was immersed in the realities of the esports industry very superficially and studied it after he signed a contract with the organization – in one of the interview Glamazda admitted that it took about six months of work.

Even the best top manager who comes to work in the industry should have a basic knowledge of esports, leading disciplines and the most successful projects from a financial point of view. The subtleties of the esports business can be learned in the process, but without understanding the prospects for the development of esports in Russia and the world, it will be simply impossible to assess your strengths. Therefore, the course “Manager of an e-sports organization” from the Institute of Industry Management of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration begins with the module “History, state of e-sports, trends”.

What does an esports organization manager do?

The main task of an organization manager is to develop the organization on all fronts. The personal tasks of each manager may be different, but first of all, he must create or improve a successful business unit. In esports, success has two components – sports performance and financial achievement. At the same time, the second largely depends on the first, but it also happens in a different way: sometimes victories come without replenishing the organization’s budget and even, on the contrary, drive it into a deep minus due to the high salaries of esportsmen, the cost of bootcamps, and so on.

Therefore, it is usually on the shoulders of the manager to find potential partners and advertisers. An important aspect in this activity will be the ability to feel the commercial potential of projects, because the business should not be unprofitable. And when it comes to esports, it’s not so easy to do this: according to experts, even the most famous organizations contain some of the compositions “in the minus”.

The manager of an esports organization most often has a large number of subordinates with varying degrees of responsibility. As in any field of activity, some aspire to esports only in order to receive a “high” salary, because fabulous earnings in the industry are often talked about. Other employees go out of their way, earning total burnout during the preparation for a major tournament and at the moment of climax not showing the necessary results. In general, the duties of a top manager include, among other things, control of the company’s human resources. As part of the IOM RANEPA courses, students will undergo the training “Practical exercises in human resource management in a company.”

The list of tasks of the manager of an esports organization usually includes the procedure for concluding contracts with players. Despite the fact that the terms of contracts should be monitored by lawyers in order to avoid misunderstandings, in the young esports industry, this point is often not worked out well enough. It’s no secret that there are a lot of self-taught people in the industry – this usually does not happen when hiring qualified specialists. The teachers of the IOM RANEPA, among other things, work out solutions to financial and legal issues from the position of a top manager.

The final module of the course “Manager of an e-sports organization” from IOM RANEPA is “Development of business leadership”, at the end of which training is conducted on the formation of the qualities necessary for a manager.

Being a leader is important for a manager of an esports organization: when forming any idea, you need to lead other employees along with them, inspire them to implement. At the same time, this should be done organically, and not with the use of additional motivation – it is also necessary, but as a reward for the passed milestones of a predetermined plan.

Where can an esports manager work?

The esports world is much wider than it seems at first glance: the industry is not 100% tournaments. Companies of various fields work and develop in this area. Bookmakers, computer clubs, media, educational platforms working with customers from the world of esports – all these structures need an esports manager. Tournament operators and game studios also need qualified specialists who will not develop the sports direction, but realize the business potential of the organization.

A top-class top manager can work in a variety of structures. If you open the Forbes rating of eSports influencers, then in the top 30 you can see a large number of managers who work not only in well-known clubs like NAVI and VP. These include managers of MTC, Mail.ru, WePlay, Maincast, Parimatch and other companies who do not directly own the compositions.

However, it is not worth expecting that an applicant without experience will be immediately taken to a high-paying position in leading esports organizations. The IOM RANEPA course will also help novice managers get advice and knowledge from experienced top managers. The leading instructors of the course are the head of the computer sports center Artem Schepot’ev and co-founder and director of strategy at Electronic Mushroom Evgeny Olenev. The full composition of the program by modules and a link to registration available on the IOM RAGHS website…

According to representatives of RANEPA, based on the results of the completed courses, you will learn:

• plan and conduct the activities of eSports organizations based on knowledge in the field of marketing and management;
• build business models in e-sports (computer clubs, organization of tournaments, media platforms, education, bookmakers);
• develop business plans, solve financial and legal issues;
• manage teams as a business leader in the esports industry.