Most sim racing enthusiasts are no strangers to accusations that their hobby is an eyesore in their homes, redundant compared to its real-life counterpart, or, most commonly, labelled as a time-sink and financial black hole with little to no tangible value in everyday life.
Photo by SimStaff
In this article, we aim to deconstruct the notion that sim racing is merely a one-sided financial burden. Rather than being aimed at critics, the article will present opportunities for enthusiasts to transform their ownership of a sim rig into a valuable business venture, while also serving as a stepping stone for both personal and professional development. Although achieving success may seem like a tightrope walk, the recent boom in the popularity of sim racing has opened many new doors for enthusiasts to turn their passion into profitable ventures. Therefore, starting your efforts now will be key.
Growing Your Audience: Building an Online Presence for Sim Racing
When taking on the world of content creation, one should start by defining what one’s focus should be. Within the realm of sim racing, there are few titles with a lot of content, provided either through updates or modding, that have gathered and cultivated audiences for often over a decade. As is evident from the discussion about the recent early access release of Assetto Corsa Evo, where many players jumped in with both feet, the world of sim racing doesn’t get new game entries very often. Therefore, starting by focusing on one sim might be worthwhile, as each entry has its own appeal and has had time to accumulate large followings. In this context, as mentioned in another blog entry, iRacing and the original Assetto Corsa could be valuable starting points for launching a YouTube channel.
Later, you could consider diversifying your reach by releasing content on multiple social platforms and gradually move away from focusing on a single platform. Across both written and audiovisual formats, one should consider that a written blog, for example, could be repurposed to be used in a video script or vice versa. Getting mileage out of your existing work by repurposing it for specific platforms is key so you can reach wider audiences across their preferred media use habits – some might prefer reading on the bus or train to kill time. In contrast, others might prefer watching video content on their bigger screens.
Photo by JACK REDGATE on Pexels
Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are great tools for distilling complex concepts into short-form content that can be dispersed to a larger audience and to generate engagement within the comment section. Although views are essential, comments hold additional value as they encourage others to interact, enhancing your content’s prominence in the algorithm of those platforms. Main videos can be shortened into brief segments where you share your opinions on new releases and updates on popular titles. From here, you can invite discussions, for example, by ending your short-form content with a question to the viewer.
While it’s not advisable to poke fun at a specific sim title community for flaws in their favourite game – a strategy some sim racing content creators have crafted their entire internet persona around – exploring the subtle art of presenting hot takes and unpopular opinions in your video title can be an effective strategy to entice viewers to click on your video content. Furthermore, choosing an unusual or bizarre thumbnail – potentially teetering on the edge of clickbait or even ragebait – from the main Reel or Short can attract viewers to click on your content and potentially spark engagement in the comments. The ultimate aim here is to leverage your short-form content as an entryway into your main long-form content and to provide a vertical slice of what your long-form content is all about.
Collaborations that Pay: Partnering with Sim Racing Brands
The former pointers about building an audience reach into the second point, which involves partnering with sim racing equipment manufacturers. Here, partnerships could include becoming a brand affiliate and later obtaining sponsorships.
Launching such an initiative as part of your content creator career might not start with collaborations with the industry’s leading manufacturers of wheelbases, wheels, and pedals. As a beginning, once you have built a significant following, a viable way to take it to the next level is to connect with smaller aftermarket manufacturers specialising in making enhancements for existing sim equipment from the most popular brands to improve or alter their performance characteristics.
Since these companies operate on the edges of the industry, brand-specific aftermarket parts are usually accessible for the equipment you already own. Sharing your insights on these products could enlighten viewers about enhancements they didn’t even know existed. This approach benefits you and the smaller aftermarket dealers as you provide feedback on the end-user experience, which could be preferable to their product pages that only provide graphs and statements of how a specific part, for example, provides further pedal travel to simulate a particular type of car.
As an initial stepping stone, this could lead to gaining new viewers who might be interested in such additive elements in their sim experience and serve as a way to get onto the radar of other companies within the industry. Industry players, including both aftermarket and primary equipment manufacturers, can vary from small, one-person operations to large companies with over 300 employees; therefore, every content creator probably has a partnership opportunity suited to their specific audience size.
Organise and Earn: Hosting Profitable Sim Racing Tournaments
Another way to take your business to the next level is to organise and host tournaments. While undertaking an endeavour involving multiple moving parts can be daunting, there are ways to organise, either by reaching out to your local grassroots community or hiring professional event organisers. Depending on your level of ambition and resources, there are multiple ways to facilitate such an undertaking.
When hosting a tournament for the first time, the most cost-effective option is to organise an online event, which also permits global participation. This method also eliminates the complications of renting venues and equipment and the inconvenience of participants transporting their gear to the tournament site. Furthermore, to draw an audience to the event, it is simple to stream on Twitch using a secondary PC, which can also be utilised to manage entries, update tournament standings, and integrate commentary or race steward announcements from a private Discord server voice channel into the live stream.
Unfortunately, conducting a tournament with geographically dispersed participants and decentralised supervision by the event holder makes it prone to issues and imbalances in more than one way. Having participants participate via their own systems could lead to cheating issues, as seen in scandals within the esports scene of the F1 franchise, as well as performance imbalances among drivers regarding PC and sim equipment hardware.
In contrast to online events, traditional offline tournaments could level the playing field among participants regarding hardware imbalances, notably when partnering with a professional organiser like SimStaff. Ensuring that all participants use the same equipment guarantees no one holds an advantage, for instance, in Force Feedback quality, as direct-drive wheelbases will be standardised for all competitors. Another advantage of SimStaff’s services is the provision of skilled steward supervision, ensuring that every participant competes under a consistent set of rules. Furthermore, should you require the broadcasting expertise mentioned earlier, SimStaff also provides this service to enhance visibility for your event. For further information about our services, look at our guide on Event Staffing Essentials.
Photo by SimStaff
On the business front, being a professional tournament host mandates the collection of entry fees from participants. This is essential for covering costs like venue rental, renting equipment, and staff to manage the simulators and handle broadcasting while also generating revenue. Providing an attractive prize pool is also essential for drawing in participants. Securing sponsorships for this – whether from local businesses or larger internationally based companies, depending on the scope and reach of the event – could cover this expense. Such collaborations benefit you and allow sponsors to increase their brand visibility among a specific audience. In this regard, their support could help reduce the costs of the tournament.
To ensure that your event is marked in the calendars of both participants and audiences, it’s crucial to promote it consistently in the months prior across diverse social media platforms. This promotion should also extend to both large and small community groups. This approach will also help facilitate timely registration for participants. It is necessary to include the date and time in all promotional materials. Failing to do so is a common pitfall among organisers, which forces stakeholders to search through their content catalogue to find out when the event will occur, which might result in a loss of interest. Other options to consider could be requesting prominent local or international sim racing community participants and sponsors to share announcements and event details on their social channels in a collective effort to raise awareness about the tournament.
As a final note, it is crucial to mention the importance of reaching out to the developer or publisher of your selected simulation title to check for any licensing concerns regarding its use in events. Should you need help with this, SimStaff, with its vast experience across all available titles, is ready to assist you.
We hope this article has helped you see sim racing as a way to start a fulfilling, passion-driven business. We also hope to see you actively share this passion with new enthusiasts and audiences. No matter your chosen path, your experience, knowledge, and passion can be made into something valuable.
