VanEck Video Gaming and eSports ETF

ESPO

Market cap $349M

The VanEck Video Gaming and eSports ETF (NYSEARCA:ESPO) offers pure exposure to an industry defying traditional entertainment economics.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--VanEck announced today the 2025 annual distributions per share for its VanEck equity exchange-traded funds.

VanEck Video Gaming and eSports ETF offers diversified exposure to the gaming sector, benefiting from strong hardware and software catalysts in 2025. ESPO stands out among peer ETFs with the lowest expense ratio, highest AUM, superior risk rating, and outperformance in price and overall grades. Key growth drivers include Nintendo's record-breaking Switch 2 launch, Take-Two's GTA VI release, and AI-driven margin expansion and innovation across top holdings.

VanEck Video Gaming and eSports ETF (ESPO) earns a hold rating due to premium valuation and near-term technical caution. ESPO trades at a P/E above 24x, with a PEG ratio near 3x, making it expensive for its niche sector exposure. While ESPO has outperformed since late 2022, technicals show weakening momentum and potential for a consolidation phase.

Thematic ETFs have long epitomized the flexibility and discrete nature of the ETF wrapper. With liquidity and trading simple, issuers and asset managers could craft a whole slew of potential strategies.

It may not be the end of the quarter yet, but we have made it through summer, and that seems like a good checkpoint to evaluate the top ETF investment themes YTD. Let's take a moment to look in this year's thematic ETF rearview mirror.

ESPO offers top-tier global exposure to video gaming and eSports, outperforming many ETFs without relying on US mega-cap tech stocks. The ETF's risk-reward profile is excellent, with strong historical returns and resilience during market drawdowns, making it an attractive high-beta play. Macro trends and correlation with the Nasdaq drive ESPO's performance, but future gains may moderate as top holdings have already surged.

Some of the top-performing themes of this year totally make sense given current geopolitical and macro headwinds. Those include gold, defense, uranium and nuclear.

VanEck Video Gaming and eSports ETF is a buy due to strong growth fundamentals in top holdings like AppLovin, Nintendo, and Tencent. ESPO has outperformed the S&P 500 with a 5-year CAGR of 19.06%, despite a moderately high expense ratio and low dividend yield. Key holdings include AppLovin with AI-driven ad growth, Nintendo with its upcoming Switch 2 launch, and Tencent with steady subscriber growth.

Video game stocks outperform the broader market on the highly anticipated launch of game releases.