HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Koen Schobbers
Koen schobbers became a professional gamer in the racegame Trackmania when he was 15 years old. But, Koen's passion for speed started the moment he was born. Everything he did had to do with speed and competition: quickest crawler, first one to open the door for the nanny, fastest player on the football field... Once he got in touch with gokarts he knew what he wanted to do. He was fast, had no fear and had complete trust in his skills behind the wheel. Losing was no option. Instead, he analysed his laps and tried again. His passion for racing was noticed by his parents and they decided Koen wasn't allowed to race as a sport in real life. Instead, they gave him gaming consoles with racing games so he could race virtually! No one could've foreseen the impact this choice was going to have on his life.
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Koen's Story
GLOBAL
Keynote speaker
Koen used to follow a master’s degree in medicine with the goal of becoming a surgeon. Things changed.
Someone once called Koen rebellious and, he understands. What he did was against the norm at the time: being the first professional gamer in the Netherlands to receive a professional sports status, continuously battling adversity and stigma through traditional media and presentations, and putting his masters degree in medicine on hold to follow his passion in the gaming and esports industry. The path into the unknown has always been more interesting to him.
His experience of talking to traditional media led him to an opportunity to become the anchorman of a gaming and esports show on ESPN. As a result, he was approached by SportsSpeakers to speak at an event in 2016 about his personal experiences and the industry. After his speech he immediately realized this is where his passion and talent came together.
Koen is now focused on delivering unique and personalized presentations and workshops with the goal of informing, inspiring and activating his audience. His goal is not to just share some random words about the industry he loves, but to create a lasting change in feeling, thinking and behaving by speaking in an open, accessible, and down to earth style.
Koen has been a speaker at over 200 events since 2016 and he’s proud to have spoken at TEDx, The Next Web, the International Telecommunication Union, the European Network of Academic Sports Services, KLM, YPO, Populous, Vodafone, Azerion, Capgemini, Lonza, van Eeghen and the Netherlands Sports Council among many other amazing conferences, businesses, universities and governing bodies across the globe.
Oftentimes, he creates the first impression for many people in his audience on what the gaming and esports industry is really about, what the possibilities are and how to deal with certain gaming situations. This has led to the existence of Parents of Play and to many cooperations where he has helped organizations to implement the gaming and esports industry in their strategies and campaigns. He’s proud to call Vodafone, KIA, Spinnin’ Records, Populous, Azerion, AXXS and the Royal Netherlands Airforce as some of his clients.
Koen is represented in the Benelux region by SportsSpeakers since 2016 and is represented on a global level by international speakers agency Chartwell Speakers since 2022.
Master's degree
Medical Student
A difficult decision had to be made in 2017. Will Koen start his master’s degree in medicine, or will he follow his passion in the gaming and esports industry? Combining both would be a very difficult task. He searched for a solution and got in touch with Prof. Dr. Schijven, a surgeon with a passion for serious games in healthcare and e-health. Together they came up with the idea to try and provide Koen with a special study program to combine his esports career with his medical career in the Amsterdam Medical Center. After 6 months of discussing with several stakeholders, the AMC announced that Koen would receive a topsportstatus. This status is normally only provided to professional athletes in traditional sports. Koen was the first esports athlete to receive a topsportstatus in the Netherlands.
Anchorman
ESPN
Koen first appeared on national television in an interview with the NOS about esports and the NOC*NSF. Since then, he has been covered in over 300 media outlets. Thanks to his media appearances, Koen was approached to become the anchorman of a show called Inside Esports, broadcasted on ESPN and Twitch.tv in 2016. That same year, he also became a founding member of the athletes commission of the International Esports Federation (IESF). Since January 2020 he is a boardmember and vice chair of the Athletes, Players & Community Commission of the Global Esports Federation.