When we spoke to Josh, he mentioned how shockingly under-monetized esports is: “The average NFL viewer is valued at, like, $45 per fan or something; esports is at around $3. Especially in esports, the viewer has been trained to get too much value for free.”

After establishing its FANography insight community, sports broadcasting leader ESPN has been able to bring market research in-house, saving approximately $650,000 in one year.

Media should take cues from sports teams, which intimately understand how spotlighting and retaining stars is crucial to building a popular franchise.