Academic book publisher Routledge releases esports handbook

British book publisher Routledge has published an academic book on esports, called the Routledge Handbook of Esports.

According to Routledge, the handbook features more than 760 pages of analysis and details about the esports industry and has input from more than 90 ‘esports specialists and academics.’

Routledge is one of the world’s premier publishers of academic work, founded in 1851. The company specialises in academic books, journals and other publications from different fields. The company releases more than 5,000 new books each year. The Handbook of Esports is the first of its kind for esports, and forms part of a wider series of Routledge Handbooks about various disciplines.

The book itself, which released last month, has a total of 764 pages and features a total of 10 key themes. The themes touch on an introduction to esports, esports research, esports players, esports business and management, esports media and communication, esports education, critical concerns in esports, global esports cultures, esports future directions and definitions of key esports terms.

Discussing why the Handbook of Esports was created, Dr. Seth Jenny, Associate Professor in the Department of Exercise Science at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, told Esports Insider:

“Routledge approached me in May 2022 to act as Senior Editor of the project and propose a Handbook of Esports. I assembled a well-respected, global, and diverse associate editorial team. I created a survey to collect authorship interest and we presented our ideas to the Esports Research Network Conference in November 2022 at Jönköping University, Sweden, while also attaining more authorship and peer reviewer interest.  

“Ultimately, it was a global effort from the awesome esports community!”

The book aims to be an all-encompassing guide to the esports industry and has been written by 93 authors ranging from academics to esports industry insiders and specialists. The book is a part of the Routledge Handbook series, which includes a large number of books from different fields, such as the Handbook of Greek Mythology or the Handbook of Language, among others.

Jenny added: “The Routledge Handbook of Esports is a prestige reference work that offers the world’s first holistic overview of esports 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 worldwide esports discourse.

(Disclaimer: A member of the Esports Insider team participated in the esports handbook as a voluntary peer reviewer.)

UPDATE 25/10/24: Esports Insider has added a comment from Dr. Seth Jenny detailing more information about the handbook.