VanEck’s digital gaming ETF has reached the €100m in assets milestone after launching only 10 months ago.
The VanEck Video Gaming and eSports UCITS ETF (ESPO) surpassed the figure during the coronavirus pandemic as many countries went into lockdown and people searched for a new way for entertainment.
ESPO offers investors exposure to companies that generate more than half of its revenue from the video gaming and esports industries.
ESPO’s performance rallied in April following a global downturn to markets which has seen some sectors struggle to recover from.
Between 19 February and 19 March, ESPO fell 20.3%. However, even after losing over a fifth of its market cap, it managed to reach a new peak on 20 April, with a rise of 0.6% since the beginning of the period.
Since most sporting events have been cancelled, many sports channels have turned to virtual gaming in replacement. For example, FOX Sports in the US decided to replace the suspended NASCAR racing series with a virtual eNASCAR race which attracted more than 900,000 viewers.
VanEck says Asia is playing an important role in the growing global audience for esports with viewers expected to grow from 395 million in 2018 to 645 million by 2022.
Martijn Rozemuller, head of Europe at VanEck, said: “The performance of our esports ETF to date shows that investments in the company, for example in software developers or streaming providers, are seen as interesting investment opportunities and a growing trend.”
