Julia ‘Bish’ Robson: SA Needs More Quality Female Gamers
Robson loves playing so much that she founded DNMK eSports in May 2020, making her the first female eSports organization owner in South Africa.
For Julian ‘Bish’ Robson, who admits she’s never been a casual gamer and has always preferred the competitive side of things, competitive gaming was love at first sight. Robson loves playing so much that she founded DNMK eSports in May 2020, making her the first female eSports organization owner in South Africa.
Bish dropped out of university while studying dentistry to pursue an eSports career, but she admits she has not always had it easy.
“The biggest difficulty for me was not having a clear path … there is a lot of unknown that comes with it because there’s not a lot of people that have done it,” said Robson.
“You do take quite a big risk to do this financially, so for a very long time after university I was not making money,” she continued.
Robson recalls some of her favorite early gaming memories from LAN parties with her younger brother, where she was first introduced to eSports.
She went on to say that, while there aren’t many female gamers at the top, there’s a lot more that can be done locally to boost female gamers’ profiles. As aspiring gamers can find the Lucky Numbers Dream guide helpful in unlocking big wins to forge a career just like Miss Robson.
“To me, gaming is not gender-specific … I would say I want more skilled knowledgeable people involved,” Robson said.
“As an industry, we still need to go a bit further where it creates an environment where we push more girls to go further and start rivalling the top five teams in South Africa for a spot, and that has not happened yet. And at the end of the day, I think that it would be unfair for a company not to choose the most skilled person for the job,” she said.
Robson has been involved in multiple gaming spheres in the larger gaming industry, and she not only competes at a high level, but she also streams and produces content for a variety of gaming brands. Betway remains one of the leading eSports brands in South Africa.
Robson is quick to concede that FIFA is ‘by far the most popular game in Africa’. “We’re still in the pattern where traditional sports become e-sports and literally anyone can play, and that’s where we’re seeing the transition first. It’s generally a lot more social, it’s not sitting on your own grinding to get a ranking, it’s, ‘let’s get beers and pizza and play’ and that’s where brands like Debonairs and Castle Lite are very much involved.”
In order to expand her brand and the local eSports community, she aims to incorporate strategies used by DNMK internationally.
Robson has been vocal about the need for more women involvement in gaming, but she’s aware of the challenges ahead. ESports remains a largely male-dominated industry not only in South Africa, but also globally, but seeing women like Robson prosper is great news. Anyone can enjoy eSports and other casino games with Betway, or even better, start a career in developing games for money.
Though the brand ambassador for Acer’s Predator line, believes that gaming is becoming more ‘mainstream’ in South Africa, she believes that getting to the next level will take more than just people playing games. “We’re still trying to get people to enjoy gaming as a spectator sport. We’re not there yet; it’s still very niche and, locally, not something a lot of people relate to. That said, with Fortnite blowing up and YouTube being accessible, you’re seeing a lot more general public awareness.”
