On 24 September 2024, the Routledge Handbook of Esports was published. This massive 62-chapter (764 pages) text offers the world’s first fully comprehensive, interdisciplinary study of competitive video gaming, one of the fastest growing sectors of the contemporary sports and entertainment industries. The 2.5-year project involved a plethora of Esports Research Network (ERN) members as editors, authors, peer reviewers, and interviewees. The creation of the handbook involved 5 editors, 93 different authors who represented 27 different countries, 152 different peer reviewers who represented 30 different countries, and 24 esports industry interviewees. The purpose of this article is to make you aware of this expansive esports research resource.
More Information and to Purchase
- Book’s Website (eBook & Hardcover)
- Website for Full Abstracts of Each Chapter
- X (Twitter) Post with More Discussion and Details
- LinkedIn Post with More Discussion and Details
Description: Routledge Handbook of Esports
Global in coverage, the book emphasizes the multifaceted nature of esports and explores the most pressing issues defining the competitive video gaming landscape today. Featuring the work of leading esports academics and industry specialists from around the world, and rigorously peer-reviewed, the book is structured around ten key themes: 1) Introduction to Esports, 2) Esports Research, 3) Esports Players, 4) Esports Business and Management, 5) Esports Media and Communication, 6) Esports Education, 7) Critical Concerns in Esports, 8) Global Esports Cultures, 9) Esports Future Directions, and 10) Key Terms Definitions. Examining the current state of esports, emerging areas of interest and the ongoing debates shaping the esports industry, each of the 62 chapters offers key highlights, an assessment of the latest research, practical esports examples and recommendations, and is complemented by enlightening case studies or industry interviews. For further academic and professional depth, chapters also include a guide to recommended additional resources.
Explaining technical terms and gaming jargon in a user-friendly manner, and maintaining a balanced tone throughout, this handbook is essential reading for any student or researcher with an interest in esports, gaming, or sport studies, and for any practitioner or policy-maker working in the esports industry.
Preface: Genesis and Overview of the Routledge Handbook of Esports
by Seth E. Jenny, Senior Editor
In May 2022, I performed an invited detailed blind review of an esports-related book proposal for Routledge. Shortly after, Routledge invited me to take lead in proposing the Routledge Handbook of Esports. I next assembled an international esports scholar team of four associate editors. It was important to select editors that have gaming and esports research, writing, and editing experience, come from varying interdisciplinary fields, represent diverse perspectives, have command of the English language, and most importantly, are reliable scholars that have a track record of meeting deadlines. Thus, the assembled mixed-gender team included: Drs. Nicolas Besombes (France), Tom Brock (United Kingdom), Amanda Cote (USA), and Tobias Scholz (Norway with roots from Austria and Germany).
From June to August 2022, we then met via Zoom (Figure 1) six times as we primarily worked on the handbook’s outline, determining tentative chapter content while trying to alleviate redundancies, as well as develop the official proposal for Routledge.
Figure 1. Routledge Handbook of Esports Editorial Team on Zoom Formulating the Outline
The 20-page proposal, including the 62-chapter outline for the targeted 305,000-word handbook (i.e., 5,000 words per chapter), was submitted to Routledge in September 2022. The proposal, modified here to present tense with other slight revisions from the original, included:
Purpose
This handbook provides a vast interdisciplinary overview of esports (i.e., organized competitive video gaming).
Rationale
Past books focus on specific areas of esports (e.g., esports medicine, esports history, esports business/management, collegiate esports, etc.). This handbook provides a broad overview unlike any preceding book, combining critical perspectives with practical recommendations to serve as a resource for academics and industry members alike.
Main Themes
The ten major themes of this handbook are: 1) Introduction to Esports, 2) Esports Research, 3) Esports Players, 4) Esports Business and Management, 5) Esports Media and Communication 6) Esports Education, 7), Critical Concerns in Esports, 8) Global Esports Cultures, 9) Esports Future Directions, and 10) Key Terms Definitions, which includes an extensive glossary of nearly 400 definitions of bolded terms throughout the handbook, with a particular focus on esports and video gaming terminology.
Objectives
The reader will be able to:
- Describe a global overview of esports.
- Utilize this handbook as an all-encompassing esports reference tool.
- Understand the interdisciplinary nature of esports.
- Evaluate the current issues surrounding the esports ecosystem.
- Immediately implement practical evidence-based strategies and recommendations regarding a plethora of areas relating to esports.
Special Elements of Each Chapter
- Three to five “key highlights” located at the end of each chapter’s abstract
- Brief introduction/history to the chapter topic along with a chapter purpose
- Concise overview of the topic, including relevant current research
- Recommended tips and strategies for esports practitioners with specific esports examples
- Main content includes tables, figures, illustrations, and bulleted lists when possible, for accessibility
- At least one “Research Byte” that includes an esports practitioner interview or case example
- Conclusion and reference list (APA style)
- Additional resources for more information and further reading not in the reference list
- Five discussion questions to provoke further discourse
- Bolded chapter-specific key terms that are defined at the end of the handbook
Target Audience
The handbook’s primary target audience is advanced students (i.e., upper-level undergraduate or graduate esports, sport management, business/management, game design, communications, and other esports-related fields) and esports and gaming researchers, particularly early career researchers. The secondary audience includes lower level undergraduate and secondary education (e.g., BTEC) esports students, libraries (particularly educational institutional libraries), esports and video gaming industry personnel new to esports, and esports players and gaming enthusiasts.
Level of Prior Esports Knowledge
Each chapter is written at a level for those who have little prior knowledge of esports to help reach varying audiences effectively. This is an interdisciplinary reference handbook, so the goal of each chapter is to cover the area of interest for a general audience – using accessible language, defining terms and jargon, providing an overview of the chapter topic, and including specific research references. It is practically written and user-friendly, with the most important things about each chapter’s topic provided. Figuratively speaking, chapters are written at a 30,000-foot perspective (i.e., general overview with specific evidence-based recommendations and practitioner-friendly strategies offered).
Approximate Proposed Timeline
Table 1. Approximate Routledge Handbook of Esports Project Timeline
| 15 January 2023 | Editors finalize author(s) for each chapter |
| 15 February 2023 | Chapter authors provide proposed chapter outline to editors |
| 28 February 2023 | Outlines of chapters due to chapter authors by editors with feedback |
| 30 April 2023 | First draft of chapters due to editors by chapter authors |
| 15 May 2023 | Section editors send drafts of chapters to peer reviewers (5 per chapter) |
| 15 June 2023 | Peer reviewers send reviews to editors (using template) |
| 30 June 2023 | Editors send chapter authors reviews and summary for revisions |
| 31 July 2023 | Chapter author revisions and revision commentary submitted to editors |
| 30 September 2023 | Editors edit each chapter and send to chapter authors |
| 31 October 2023 | Chapter authors return final chapter draft addressing editors |
| 31 November 2023 | Section editors send final draft chapters to senior editor |
| 15 December 2023 | Final handbook sent to Routledge by senior editor |
| 31 January 2023 | Senior editor submits handbook to Routledge |
| 31 July 2024 | Routledge Handbook of Esports published (anticipated) |
Proposal Peer Review
The proposal then went through a double-blind review process performed by four reviewers organized by Routledge in October 2022. While many positive comments were included, proposal reviewer feedback regarding “What are the weaknesses of this proposal?” included:
- Reader A – “Ambitious – 50 contributors and 5 editors – that’s a lot of review and editorial work, plus additional editor written contributions…It should be noted that this is an incredibly ambitious project and overreaches in several places.”
- Reader D – “Section 2 is a book. Sections 4, 5 and 6 are another book. Sections 3, 7, 8 and 9 are a different book. Authors want to include all the information in one book and that’s not possible.”
Soliciting Feedback and Welcoming Collaborators
Next in mid-November 2022, the associate editors and I were invited to present a panel discussion to solicit feedback from the esports research community on our proposed handbook outline, as well as obtain interest from potential collaborators at the Esports Research Network (ERN) Conference 2022 in Jönköping, Sweden (Figure 2). In addition to the 250 global esports scholars in attendance, the presentation was live streamed on YouTube and Twitch, which was viewed by an additional 500 synchronous and asynchronous online viewers worldwide.
Figure 2. Handbook of Esports Presentation Flyer for the Esports Research Network Conference 2022, Jönköping University, Sweden
I created a Google Forms Survey and as an editorial team we attained 129 responses from those interested in authoring and/or peer reviewing a chapter. Survey respondents also provided their qualifications and past publications relating to each interested chapter topic. We distributed this survey openly at the ERN conference, via the 400+ global ERN member email distribution list, and on social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, Discord). I also facilitated further interest and survey responses through writing a short article for the ERN website titled: “Are you interested in being a chapter author or reviewer for the “Handbook of Esports?”, which was liberally distributed.
In late November 2022, we organized a detailed and satisfactory response to the proposal reviews, which subsequently led to a Routledge contract offer in January 2023. December 2022 through January 2023, we finalized chapters authors. We purposefully targeted a gender and geographically diverse authorship and sent emails to potential authors, conducted Zoom calls with authors who had questions, created a question-and-answer form for common questions from authors, and created a chapter template for authors to follow. Obviously, we were limited to authors who write in English. Despite us continuing to work on this project, we did not sign the official contract with Routledge until February 2023.
Across Spring and Summer 2023, we gave feedback on chapter outlines (as esports is so interdisciplinary, we felt this was compulsory to avoid overlapping content across chapters), collected first chapter drafts, worked through missed outline or first draft deadlines, assigned chapters to new authors where deadlines were not met, co-wrote chapters ourselves, created a peer reviewer template, assigned double-blind peer reviews for each chapter, disseminated double-blind peer reviews and offered editorial commentary to chapter authors, and collected revised chapters. We had many setbacks, as could be imagined for such a large project of 62 chapters.
Author and Reviewer Demographics
To illustrate the extensiveness of this global project, Routledge Handbook of Esports author and reviewer demographic information is provided in Table 0.2. As editors we made purposeful decisions to track and facilitate diverse collaborators. World and more detailed Europe maps are provided for affiliations (i.e., nationality or current residence) for Routledge Handbook of Esports chapter authors (Figure 3 and 4) and reviewers (Figures 5 and 6). While assigning authors and peer reviewers, we tried to blend esports academics with esports industry personnel to provide a balanced perspective for each chapter.
Table 2. Routledge Handbook of Esports Author and Peer Reviewer Demographics
| Gender | Authors (n = 93) | Peer Reviewers (n = 152) |
| Men | 67.7% (n = 63) | 70.4% (n = 107) |
| Women | 31.2% (n = 29) | 27.6% (n = 42) |
| Non-binary | 1.1% (n = 1) | 1.3% (n = 2) |
| Genderfluid | 0.0% | 0.7% (n = 1) |
| Unique Countries Represented | 27* (Figures 3 and 4) | **30 (Figures 5 & 6) |
Figure 3. Routledge Handbook of Esports Author Countries (World)
Figure 4. Routledge Handbook of Esports Author Countries (Europe)
Peer Review Statistics
The double-blind peer review process is not common amongst textbooks. Except for the eight introductory chapters that were written by the editors, all other chapters (n = 53 chapters) were double-blind peer reviewed. It was laborious and time intensive as the 53 chapters were sent to a total of 289 reviewers. Each chapter was sent to an average of 5.5 reviewers. The goal was to attain at least 2 reviews per chapter. The range of reviews sent per chapter was 4 to 10 reviewers – 2 chapters had to be sent to 10 different reviewers to attain at least 2 returned reviews. The total number of returned reviews was 165, representing a total response rate of 57.1%! We are proud of this extremely high response rate and give all the kudos to the wonderful esports research community. Overall, the average number of reviews per chapter was 3.1 reviews, with the range of reviews per chapter being 2 to 5 reviews (i.e., 5 chapters had 5 returned reviews). Ultimately, everyone’s efforts were definitely worthwhile as the chapters were significantly improved throughout the review process. In appreciation, the entire list of reviewers is found at the beginning of the handbook.
Figure 5. Routledge Handbook of Esports Reviewer Countries (World)
Figure 6. Routledge Handbook of Esports Reviewer Countries (Europe)
Celebration of Our Work
On August 29th and 30th, 2023, Tom Brock and Manchester Metropolitan University (Manchester, UK) hosted an in-person conference titled: “Understanding the World of Esports: Esports Science Series 2023”. All Routledge Handbook of Esports authors were invited to present their chapters. This was an excellent opportunity to network and share the hard work put into this project, as 20 authors were able to attend (see Figure 7).
Figure 7. Routledge Handbook of Esports Authors who attended the 2023 Understanding the World of Esports Conference at Manchester Metropolitan University
Conclusion
This Routledge Handbook of Esports is a prestige reference work providing an overview of the whole subject area, with related sub-areas. It is difficult to express the significance of this handbook, the void it fills, the global effort it took to complete, and the vast impact it is hoped it will have on esports scholarship worldwide. As editors, we aimed to involve the entire esports academic and industry community through open and transparent methods. This enabled us to attain a stellar international cast of premier esports scholars along with those who work in the industry involved in this project.
Esports and gaming enthusiasts are opinionated, passionate, and voracious. This thematically edited collection surveying the entire esports ecosystem will hopefully quench the thirst for these devotees as we examine the current debates, controversies, and questions in esports, while remaining accessible for the novice. With authorship and chapter feedback from around the globe and diversity of topics written by experts in each specific chapter, anyone can use this text as a reference manual for esports knowledge. In closing, I would like to personally thank all editors, authors, and reviewers for their great efforts in moving forward esports scholarship!
Sincerely,
Seth E. Jenny, Senior Editor
Routledge Handbook of Esports
Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, USA
25 January 2024
About the Esports Research Network (ERN)
Are you interested in becoming an Esports Research Network member? As the mission statement notes: “The Esports Research Network is a collaboration of various researchers fostering interdisciplinary research on the emerging phenomenon of esports.” As of September 2024, there are nearly 600 ERN members from 62 different global countries. Membership spans academia and esports industry professionals. If you would like to become a member, please apply via this form.