Introduction
Participants in esports are not only tournament competitors. The ecosystem includes team formation and administration, community moderation, and content creation. Yet typologies of these actors remain unsettled, partly because no shared standard defines what counts as "professional" in a domain where digital labour is hard to delimit. Clarifying these categories matters: the scale of esports and its entanglement with evolving forms of digital entertainment and work make precise definitions consequential for research, policy, and industry practice.
Purpose
This study examines how individuals involved in esports define their roles and professional trajectories, and how they differ from casual gamers in terms of socioprofessional variables, gaming practices, digital competence, and career anchors.
Method
An online survey was conducted with 297 respondents, including both (self-identified) casual gamers and esports participants, recruited via esports-related channels. A descriptive-comparative approach was applied, using chi-square and Mann-Whitney U tests to assess intra-group differences among esports participants and between them and casual gamers.
Results
Emerging patterns suggest that esports participants diverge from non-participants primarily on indicators of gaming engagement and digital collaboration skills, while no consistent differences are observed for employment status or broad career orientations. Within the esports group, roles cluster into competitive, creative, organisational and hybrid configurations. While involvement was diverse, few viewed it as a full-time occupation, and economic sustainability is frequently questioned. In short, perceived professional involvement aligns with the role rather than behavioural patterns (e.g., frequency/intensity of play).
Conclusions
The findings contribute to ongoing debates about digital labour and identity by indicating that esports participation is fluid and precarious and likely situated on a continuum with casual gaming. In contrast with current practices in game-related research, professional identity seems shaped less by time-use metrics than by functional role and self-perceived commitment, with interesting implications for both research and industry.