Earlier this week, I talked to Lydia Murphy-Stephans, the former president of Pac-12 Networks and principal at LMS Media Ventures. She founded a company in 2018 called SportsBubble, and she told me about its product, WatchSports. This is an iOS app that pulls in feeds from both traditional sports and esports, presenting them as 24-hour guide — and taking you to any listed event with a tap (her plans include bringing it to Android, smart TVs, web and consoles).
The viewing options flabbergasted me. If you’re trying to decide what to watch this weekend between the Rainbow Six Charlotte Major, the CS:GO Stockholm Major, the Valorant Champions Tour, the Rocket League Championship Series or the NBA or NHL playoffs, give WatchSports a try. — Jason Wilson
Online food ordering platform Favor is expanding an existing deal with Envy Gaming and will be presenting sponsor for the first Overwatch League tournament of the year next month. Envy — parent company of the Dallas Fuel, which are hosting the four-day event next month — also have Jack Link’s beef jerky and Aim Lab aboard as sponsors for the Dallas Fuel Kickoff Clash at Esports Stadium Arlington.
Presenting sponsorships are the highest level of deal available for OWL tournaments, as game publisher Blizzard Entertainment doesn’t allow for title sponsor deals. Favor and Envy worked directly on the deal and did not use agencies.
Favor, which is owned by Texas-based grocery chain H-E-B, isn’t new to the OWL, as it sponsored the first-ever homestand that the Fuel hosted in 2019. The brand operates in over 200 cities in Texas. “We are excited to see Favor continue to invest and get involved with esports and our community,» Envy VP/Sales & Marketing Shay Butler tells SBJ. «Their Texas roots make them a perfect presenting sponsor for the Kickoff Clash and further showcase the power of regionalized live events.»
The esports industry will see this announcement as a boon for the event and the league, as sponsorships had mostly dried up due to the legal and workplace troubles at Blizzard, which develops the Overwatch game.
Favor joins other delivery brands that have looked to esports sponsorships as a way to connect with a younger, digitally-native audience. DoorDash has sponsored the likes of FaZe Clan and the NBA 2K League, while GrubHub has sponsored 100 Thieves, TSM and Team Liquid. — Kevin Hitt
H-E-B's online delivery service Favor will sponsor a Texas-based Overwatch League event
Riot Games is taking a 20% stake in Statespace, which is the parent company of Aim Lab, which is a popular app/program in esports that helps train players on crosshair shooting. aim Lab has long worked with Riot across its game titles, and as part of this deal, Aim Lab will become the official coaching-and-training platform for Valorant, which is Riot’s first-person shooter game.
Riot will work to integrate its maps, physics and weapons into Aim Lab’s tools. Eventually, the L.A.-based game publisher will help Aim Lab bring its tools to multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games like League of Legends and the mobile title Wild Rift (Aim Lab isn’t yet available for mobile but is coming soon).
Aim Lab and Riot have worked together on events such as the Aim Lab Combine at the VCT Challengers North America, where Valorant amateur players played against pros. Valorant Masters and Champions event competitors also use Aim Lab as a warmup tool before matches.
Statespace was founded in 2017, and it claims that over 25 million people have used its platform. If you ever watch me play an FPS game, it’s clear I haven’t yet. — Jason Wilson
The Monster Energy Supercross series is seeing success with its second annual esports event. Feld Entertainment Manager of Global Partnerships Edward Billington, whose group operates the Supercross series, says the competition — played around Milan-based publisher Milestone’s Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Videogame title — has “exceeded our expectations and goals.»
The tourney, dubbed the eSX eSports Championship, kicked off last week with time trial qualifiers, and the event now goes until June 30. It will all eventually culminate with an eSX finals in 2023, held at a live Supercross event.
Yamaha is the title sponsor for the esports series, and Feld is operating the event. Since most of it takes place online at this point, it’s been easy for competitors to sign up and play on either PlayStation, Xbox or Steam. Billington said that all together, the tournament streams reached almost 75,000 views. The winner got a Yamaha RMAX4 1000 LE Wolverine off-road vehicle.
“Our goal for Yamaha was to put fans on their motorcycles, in a digital space, which will hopefully translate to them being more comfortable with the brand and choosing to get on a Yamaha motorcycle in the real world,” Billington said to SBJ. “Our surveying of participants yielded a 96% aided recall and an 85% unaided recall that Yamaha was the title sponsor, which is a great response.” — Jason Wilson
Feld Entertainment has been pleased with the results from its Supercross esports efforts
NASCAR and Ubisoft partnered to deck out a stock car with Rainbow Six branding
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