Today some dude in a powder blue polo knock off just got named Madden 2016 champion. Its a thing. Really. The 2017 cash pool is a million dollars. The cash value of the grand prize for the NBA 2k16 Road to the Finals tourney that ended on June 1st was 256K. In other words, gaming is big money. Not just the playing of the game but the podcasting of the games and vlogging and live streaming through Twitch, etc. In fact, the top twitch streamer is someone named Syndicate who has over 38 million channel views. That is crazy coverage. That is also the new media and part of a world of digital sports that have built a realm of digital communication around itself.
With that thirst for communication comes the requisite seedy side and, of course, profit. Those two walk hand in hand and mostly take human form as buxom female gamers who do everything but get nude in order to curry more views. Is it working? Yep. There are multiple top ten lists of the hottest twitch streams out there. Some are straight up posing like porn stars. Others are legit gamers who are also playing on their looks to build a following. Of course they are. This is a business and this is really big money nowadays.