Esports Business Management

About

David P. Hedlund PhD is the chairperson of the division of sport management at St. John's University where he is also a faculty expert and faculty leader on research and topics related to esports. Hedlund earned his PhD in sport management and a certificate in measurement and statistics from Florida State University. He has more than 20 years of domestic and international experience in sport esports coaching business education and analytics. He has published more than 30 journal articles and book chapters on related topics. He is a research committee member for the International Esports Federation an educational program assistant for the United States Esports Federation and a member of the Esports Research Network. In recent years Hedlund has also acted as a consultant for dozens of domestic and international high school college and professional esports teams as well as business and entrepreneurial ventures including the World Cyber Games and the Global Esports Executive Summit.Gil Fried JD is a professor at the University of New Haven in Connecticut. He has taught sport law sport finance and sport facility management for more than 25 years and has written numerous articles books and book chapters on various sport management issues. He taught the first business-school-based esports class several years ago and has worked to expand the professionalism of the esports industry. Fried speaks throughout the United States on issues such as building and financing facilities and dealing with risk management concerns. Fried was a practicing attorney before becoming an academician. Before that he was a collegiate coach helped run major events and was the vice president of marketing for a womens professional basketball league. At one point in the early 1980s he sold video games (Donkey Kong Pac-Man Centipede and more) to bars restaurants and other establishments. In addition to researching and writing about sport management Fried enjoys playing badminton collecting stamps farming being with his wife and kids and traveling.R.C. Smith III MAA MSJ is an assistant professor of sport management in the department of business and economics and the director of esports at Marietta College. Smith has over 12 years of work in higher education in various roles including alumni relations teaching and collegiate athletics. He has earned two masters degreesone from Seton Hall University School of Law in intellectual property and one from University of the Incarnate Word in sport managementand he earned his bachelors in multimedia journalism from Florida Atlantic University. Smiths areas of strength are event management fan engagement innovation and revenue generation. Recently Smith became a software trainer and consultant for sports teams and organizations in the areas of game management and fan engagement.