Sorry, Twitch: ESPN's Skipper Says eSports "Not a Sport"

When asked to comment on Amazon’s $1 billion deal to buy videogame streaming site Twitch, ESPN President John Skipper didn’t mince words when it came to offering his appraisal of the form of entertainment dubbed “eSports.”

“It’s not a sport — it’s a competition. Chess is a competition. Checkers is a competition,” said Skipper in remarks Thursday at the Code/Media Series: New York conference. “Mostly, I’m interested in doing real sports.”

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you join us?

Our biggest supporters are our readers — and we’re so grateful to everyone who has made a contribution during our September campaign. We’re less than 1,000 contributions away from reaching our goal for the month, which in turn will allow us to say yes more often when our incredible journalists come to us with questions they want to answer and projects they want to pursue. Will you make a contribution before the month ends and support our policy coverage through 2024 and beyond?

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via