ERNC 2024 – Esports Research Network Conference
Conference Overview
The Esports Research Network Conference 2024 (ERNC 2024) was held from 30 October to 1 November 2024 in London, United Kingdom. Following the success of previous editions, ERNC24 once again brought together an international community of researchers, industry professionals, and practitioners to explore critical questions at the intersection of esports, society, and digital culture. The conference was held in a hybrid format, combining in-person participation with online access.
Taking place in the lead-up to the League of Legends World Finals in London, ERNC24 situated esports research within a broader cultural and economic moment, highlighting the growing entanglement of competitive gaming with global media, sport, and urban environments.
Theme and Contributions
ERNC 2024 was organised under the theme “Where Worlds Collide”, capturing the growing intersections between esports and traditional sport, culture, media, technology, education, and governance. The conference framed esports as a rapidly evolving socio-technical phenomenon shaped by overlapping systems of play, labour, capital, identity, and regulation.
Across three days, contributions addressed how esports operates at the boundaries between digital and physical worlds, grassroots communities and professional industries, entertainment and labour, and inclusion and exclusion. Research presentations examined esports as a site of cultural negotiation, where issues of sustainability, ethics, diversity, performance, health, and governance increasingly collide.
A broad range of topics reflected the interdisciplinary maturity of esports research. These included performance analytics and coaching, psychological and physiological demands of competitive play, career pathways and labour conditions, gambling and monetisation, media and spectatorship, education and pedagogy, sustainability, accessibility, and inclusion. Collectively, the contributions demonstrated how esports research offers insights not only into gaming, but into wider societal dynamics in an increasingly digital world.
Keynotes and Panels
ERNC 2024 featured three keynote addresses that exemplified the conference theme by critically engaging with moments of collision within esports.
Brett Abarbanel opened the conference with “The Bettor Part of Valor(ant)”, examining the intersections of esports, gambling, and gaming culture. Her keynote raised critical questions about monetisation, regulation, and the implications of betting practices for the future of competitive gaming.
On the second day, Emma Witkowski delivered “Collisions, Context & Coming Together: Exploring the Intersection of Traditional Sports & Esports”. Her talk highlighted how esports and traditional sports increasingly learn from one another, emphasizing opportunities for mutual exchange, inclusion, and innovation across institutional boundaries.
The closing keynote by Anna Baumann, “Beyond the Agora: Esports and the Fractured Dream of a Unified Society”, offered a critical reflection on the tensions between esports’ idealistic vision of openness and the realities shaped by commercialisation and power structures. Baumann called for renewed scholarly and practical engagement to preserve esports’ potential as a transformative and inclusive arena.
In addition to the keynotes, ERNC24 featured a wide range of panels and discussions bringing together academic researchers, industry professionals, and practitioners. Panel topics included diversity and inclusion, ethical challenges, sustainable business in esports, careers and HR, education, and research development. These sessions reinforced ERNC’s commitment to dialogue between research and practice.
Media and Recordings
Key sessions and talks from ERNC 2024 were recorded and are available via the official ERNC 2024 YouTube playlist.
Organisational Context
ERNC 2024 continued the Esports Research Network’s mission to foster interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration between academia and industry. As the conference closed, participants left with a shared sense of momentum, reinforcing the importance of thoughtful, inclusive, and sustainable approaches to esports as it continues to evolve across overlapping digital and physical worlds.
Conference Chairs
Tom Brock
Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
Cameron Vanloo
Staffordshire University, United Kingdom
Organising Committee
Russell Campion (Staffordshire University); Joshua Ferguson (Staffordshire University); Milena Rodriguez Guevara (StaffordIshire University); Joshua Lindsey (Staffordshire University); Ivan Philips (Staffordshire University).
Scientific Committee
Nicolas Besombes (University of Paris, France); Amanda Cote (University of Oregon, United States); Joanne Donoghue (Esports Health and Performance Research, United Kingdom); Julia Hiltscher (ESL FACEIT Group); Jaewon Jin (Yonsei University, South Korea); Seth E. Jenny (Slippery Rock University, United States); Oliver Leis (Leipzig University, Germany); Brian McCauley (Jönköping University, Sweden); Tobias Scholz (University of Agder, Norway).