University of Michigan to use $4 million gift to launch new esports minor

The University of Michigan will use a $4 million gift to establish a new competitive video gaming minor at the university. The new program will help students get ready for a career in the esports industry.

The gift is from Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, the video game company  best known for iconic franchises including "Call of Duty," "Candy Crush" and "World of Warcraft."

The new minor  in esports — organized video game competitions played for spectators — is slated to be up and running by 2022. The donation will fund a professor to lead the development of the program, which will combine research and instruction in computer science, sports management and user experience.

"Esports is poised for explosive growth, and I am thrilled to join the University of Michigan to develop a program that will cultivate the talent to meet the needs of this complex and evolving industry," Kotick, who studied art history at U-M in the 1980s, said in a statement. "Unlike traditional sports, esports is truly a participant sport that anyone can play and enjoy."

The esports industry is booming. The fan base is expected to include nearly 729 million people by the end of 2021, a 10% increase from 2020, according to NewZoo, a gaming analytics company. Activision Blizzard boasts nearly 400 million gamers around the world.

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"This generous gift by Bobby Kotick gives us an opportunity to contribute to an understanding of video gaming broadly and esports more specifically as a tremendously important cultural and economic phenomenon," U-M School of Information Dean Thomas Finholt said  in a statement. "The time is right; this is the right place to do it." 

The school's research and instruction in data science, human computer interaction, information economics and extended reality will play a role in addressing what Finholt called "critical social and behavioral questions surrounding games and game use, and the design of games."

First up will be the development of what the school is calling an esports "blockbuster" course, featuring an innovative, multidisciplinary curriculum, to be offered annually beginning in the 2022-23 academic year.

The introductory course will engage students with esports platforms, teams and industry experts. It will cover such topics as the interplay between the video game and esports businesses; the differences between traditional sports and esports as they relate to economics and demographics and the structure of esports leagues and tournaments.

"We're literally at the edge of the water right now," said Mark Rosentraub, a professor of sport management at the School of Kinesiology, in a statement. "Esports has very different, unique aspects that we need to begin to understand. This is what makes it so exciting."

More than a half dozen existing courses have been identified to include in the minor so far.

The School of Kinesiology and College of Engineering are also early campus partners in the multidisciplinary program. 

Contact David Jesse: 313-222-8851 or djesse@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @reporterdavidj. Subscribe to the Detroit Free Press.