Each week we bring you a taste of what is happening around the commercial world of esports. We will focus on advances in the Irish sector when there are some, as well as on some of the commercial deals which are taking place and fuelling the rapid growth of this area within the world of sport.
This week we look at the scale of Microsoft’s purchase of Activision, at the new global deal for our eSports partner Legion, at new sponsorship deals for Mastercard and JD Sports, and at eSports featuring in our Sporting Year Ahead event this week.
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MICROSOFT PURCHASE OF CALL OF DUTY AND CANDY CRUSH
Microsft has confirmed it is to buy Activision, the publisher of games including Call of Duty and Candy Crush for a figure in the region of $68 Billion.
To put this into context it is its largest-ever acquisition and 2.5 times more in value than when it bought Linked In five years ago.
The benefit will be the ability to include Activision games on the subscription Game Pass for X-Box and PC’s.
“We’re investing deeply in world-class content, community and the cloud to usher in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe, inclusive and accessible to all,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
The deal is expected to take over a year to conclude with the necessary regulatory approvals but it places a major shift on the near horizon in the value being attributed to the sector.
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NEW GLOBAL DEAL FOR LEGION ESPORTS
Legion Esports + Media, Ireland’s leading esports production company has announced a groundbreaking multi-property partnership with international gaming peripheral brand Trust gaming.
Since launching in October 2020, Legion Esports + Media has registered over 3,500 users of its esports tournaments from more than 15 countries. During the course of 2021, the company also announced a commercial partnership with an Post as well as launching Legion Collegiate eSports a dedicated esports series for third level students in Ireland.
The new partnership with Trust Gaming will include a range of sponsorship activations across all Legion properties including Legion Esports, Legion Collegiate, and Legion Creators, an innovative programme that supports gaming content creators in their career development.
“We’re incredibly excited to renew our partnership with Trust Gaming, one of the leading gaming and esports peripheral brands in the world,” said Legion CEO Stuart Dempsey who will be joining us to look ahead to the esports year on Thursday, January 20th at The Sporting Year Ahead.
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JD SPORTS SIGN SHIRT DEAL WITH EXCEL
UK based team Excel Esports has signed a deal with sports retailer JD Sports which will see the brand logo appear on players shirts throughout the 2022 2022 season of League of Legends.
The team will also change its name for the tournaments to JDXL though whether that will extend to the renaming of social media handles is not yet clear.
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DEMPSEY TO SPEAK AT THE SPORTING YEAR AHEAD
Stuart Dempsey, the CEO of Legion eSports will be a guest speaker at the first major Sport for the Business event of the year, The Sporting Year Ahead, taking place on Thursday morning, January 20th.
He will join leading experts across the business of sport in previewing the events and trends that will shape engagement with the sporting audience over the next twelve months.
You can register to join us for the online event and check out the full running order at the link below.
REGISTER FOR THE SPORT FOR BUSINESS SPORTING YEAR AHEAD 2022 >>
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MASTERCARD SIGNS DEAL WITH US TEAM
Mastercard has signed a one year deal to become the official financial services partner of the US-based FlyQuest League of Legends team.
This is another step for the payments brand who are major sponsors of traditional sport and have been steadily increasing their visibility in gaming.
In 2020 they became one of the first brands to appear on in-game signage across a number of Riot Games titles.
