The plan for most esports teams in the early days was to wait for the day that media rights took over as the driving force for revenue. Now that it’s become clear that this development will probably never happen, esports teams are aggressively ramping up their sponsorship efforts. Between a slate of outsourcing partnerships and myriad new hires, teams are looking to knock on as many sponsor doors as they can to leverage the attention brought to the business of gaming amid the pandemic.
— Trent Murray
Sportfive will be the exclusive global commercial sales agency for Misfits Gaming Group as it continues to grow its esports business, reports SBJ’s Trent Murray. Sportfive will work with Misfits on sponsor development and integration across the esports team’s U.S. and European properties. Misfits’ portfolio includes gaming influencers, the Florida Mutineers (Call of Duty League), Florida Mayhem (Overwatch League) and a team in the League of Legends European circuit (LEC).
Misfits CRO Lagen Nash tells SBJ that she identified the need to eventually outsource a portion of commercial partnership sales early in her tenure with the team. Following recent expansions and acquisitions — such as the signing of two prominent Minecraft creators — Misfits explored several options, eventually arriving at the partnership with Sportfive.
«We have people around the world working on various properties, but to make sure we are really knocking on every brand’s door, we need to do that with scale,» she said. «From a reputation standpoint and an economic standpoint for Misfits, it made sense to outsource this resource to really give us that global footprint.”
Sportfive has steadily increased its esports activity recently, partnering with Immortals, T1 Entertainment & Sports and Fnatic. The agency also serves three of Riot Games’ four major regional League of Legends properties, including the LEC, China’s LPL and the LCK in South Korea. Sportfive Head of Esports and Gaming for the Americas Ryan Polun noted that the diversity of its partners is key to the agency’s long-term strategy, allowing it to expand its knowledge of the esports and gaming influencer space.
“For us to get better as an agency, we need to align with folks that are adding value to our business,” he said. Polun pointed to Misfits’ recent move into Minecraft as a unique opportunity. Few esports organizations have signed Minecraft influencers, despite the game’s enduring popularity. “To ensure that our agency can continue to grow, we need to be working with partners that are in these types of ecosystems. There’s a good value exchange,” said Polun.
Twitch Rivals and the NFLPA are back again at the Super Bowl for the third iteration of an event dubbed the «Streamer Bowl,» which began today with brands like Dunkin’, Pizza Hut, State Farm, Samsung and Logitech getting branding at the event at L.A. Live in downtown, reports SBJ’s Trent Murray.
The competition sees popular Twitch streamers with NFL pros in a Fortnite tournament featuring a $1 million charity prize pool. Among the notable streamers participating is Kyle Giersdorf, who won the Fortnite World Cup. NFL players participating include Chargers RB Austin Ekeler, Eagles RB Boston Scott, Panthers RB Christian McCaffery, Browns WR Jarvis Landry, Vikings WR Justin Jefferson, Cardinals QB Kyler Murray, Buccaneers WR Mike Evans, Giants RB Saquon Barkley, Packers RB Aaron Jones and Chargers WR Keenan Allen.
Dunkin’ and Pizza Hut will provide food to participants, in addition to sponsoring match predictions and an MVP segment respectively. State Farm will present a gameplay analysis segment while Samsung hosts a pre-show challenge event. Logitech will engage the viewers in the event chat room through a product giveaway.
Twitch Head of Global Sponsorship Sales Lou Garate tells SBJ that in-person events like the Streamer Bowl represent a key evolution for the brand, along with creating new opportunities for sponsors. Since its inception, Twitch Rivals has primarily focused on online competitions between streamers, but has steadily incorporated more in-person events.
State Farm, Dunkin', Verizon, Logitech, Pizza Hut and TurboTax were among the event's sponsors
Austin Ekeler was among the NFL players taking part in the Twitch Rivals event
Overwatch League is currently operating its fifth season, but the long-term future of Activision Blizzard’s first franchised league remains in question, writes SBJ’s Kevin Hitt. There remain questions about viewership metrics and sponsor retention — not mention what plans Microsoft might have if its acquisition of Activision passes muster with the federal government.
The league, like many in sports, also has had to deal with COVID issues related to in-person events (like moving the OWL finals to Hawaii). And then there is the issue of Activision’s delayed release of Overwatch 2 and what that means for the league.
It’s a tall task for Jon Spector, who is in his first year running operations for OWL. But Spector isn’t new to the league, having come aboard for the launch five years ago. «One of the things that I’m really proud of in the last two years is I think we’ve found the right tone and positioning and voice for the Overwatch League,” Spector tells SBJ. “A lot of the aspiration was this is the next NFL. And I think having that realization of actually the way that you grow this thing and you build it is to say, ‘Yes, you can learn from the NFL. You don’t want to be them.'»
Read the full Q&A with Spector on SBJ’s esports page.
Evil Geniuses continues to hire seasoned sports execs to grow its business, with the esports team now adding Leonard Edwards as VP and head of global partnerships, reports SBJ’s Trent Murray. Edwards was most recently with the Islanders, and helped the team bring on big brands like Hyundai to sponsor the team’s new UBS Arena. Edwards in his new role will lead all of Evil Genius’ sales efforts.
The esports team also recently added Caroline Young (previously with WNBA L.A. Sparks) as director of corporate partnerships and Daryl Vales (previously with the Lakers) as partnerships manager.
While working with the Isles, Edwards also helped secure deals with McDonalds and Enterprise. Edwards also had team stints with the Devils and Magic, and delved into esports before during his time with Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment. While with the ownership group for the Devils/76ers, Edwards was senior director of corporate partnerships for both Dignitas and 76ers GC (the NBA squad’s NBA 2K League team). He helped Dignitas land a deal with Buffalo Wild Wings, which was the restaurant chain’s first esports team sponsorship.
Edwards tells SBJ he was excited by the opportunity to return to esports due in part to the leadership team of Evil Geniuses, particularly CEO Nicole LaPointe Jameson. He also is looking forward to engaging with the young, digitally savvy audience that Evil Geniuses has cultivated. “I have gotten a lot younger over the last three days just because of the nature of how fans in the space think,» he said. «Having conversations with friends’ children over the weekend, they don’t watch television. … They block all the ads. [Esports] is a way to get in front of that up and coming demographic that will be your consumer one day.”
Nobis will have product giveaways across OverActive team and player channels
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