Dallas Mavericks owner and serial investor Mark Cuban has expressed doubts about the rate at which traditional team owners are buying into eSports and the future of overworked players.
Read more: Best LoL players in the world.
Cuban has previously made key investments in eSports, most notably the betting site Unikrn during its $7m Series A round of funding in June of last year. However in an email to Fusion, the superstar investor from ABC’s “Shark Tank” explained that his investments in eSports begin and end off the field.
“I haven’t and won’t invest in teams,” Cuban wrote. “Right now it’s a gold rush to buy and sell and build teams. That’s creating a confused market. But more importantly, I’m worried about how quickly players burn out. It’s a grind to keep up and to become great. Particularly at LoL.”
Cuban’s perception of a ‘confused market’ sees large corporate buy-ins of a relatively small and growing scene as detrimental to its continued growth. His comments follow the spate of announcements this week and last that major eSports teams were being acquired by NBA teams and their owners or shareholders. The Philadephia 76ers, chief amongst these, acquired and merged Team Dignitas and Apex, with Apex’s LCS slot now seeing Dignitas return to League of Legends.
However Cuban is concerned that these teams are breaking the rod on the back of young players with little consideration for their well-being or future in the industry.
“I know teams are trying to do more, but the number of hours involved is a real concern for me,” he said. “I’m not closing the door, but it’s not something I would pursue right now.”