Doritos Inks Multi-Year Sponsorship Deal With Major League Gaming

By Eric Fisher, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal

Major League Gaming (MLG) has struck a multi-year sponsorship deal with Frito Lay North America’s Doritos brand, continuing a period of marked growth for the competitive video gaming property. The deal, worth an undisclosed seven-figure sum, will fuel the creation of the Doritos MLG Skills Combine, a nationwide, multi-day scouting event not unlike the annual NFL Combine that will be used to identify new talent to compete on the MLG Pro Circuit. The combine will additionally include an online component in keeping with MLG’s extensive digital focus. Other activation elements around the MLG-Doritos pact are still being developed, and it is not yet known whether the MLG logo will appear on Doritos packaging. A retail component to the alignment will be announced in the fall. The pact joins a series of other developments in '09 for MLG, including the closing of a $7.5M round of venture capital financing, an acquisition of Agora Games, an expansion of its content and distribution deal with ESPN, and new sponsorship deals with Castrol and Bic to join a battery of other returning sponsors. “Working with us in this fashion is not the leap it once was. We’ve proven we’ve made a powerful connection with consumers, particularly young males,” said MLG President & CEO Matthew Bromberg. "Now comes the fun part.” The agreement is not the first gaming-related deal for Doritos, as the brand also has aligned with Microsoft’s Xbox Live on a campaign in which consumers were invited to create a Doritos-inspired videogame. “Gaming is something our core consumers are very passionate about, so this made a lot of sense for us,” said Doritos Dir of Marketing Rudy Wilson. “We look forward to being part of identifying the next wave of gaming stars.”