Activision Blizzard has sold seven charter franchises in its startup Overwatch League, including two to traditional sports owners and three to other buyers with backers from major pro sports. The owners will be officially announced today.
The seven franchise locations and their owners are:
- Boston: Patriots Owner Robert Kraft
- N.Y.: Mets COO and Sterling.VC co-founder Jeff Wilpon
- L.A.: Noah Whinston, CEO of Immortals, whose backers include AEG, Grizzlies co-Owner Stephen Kaplan and Lionsgate
- Miami-Orlando: Ben Spoont, CEO & co-Founder of Misfits Gaming, backed by the Heat
- S.F.: NRG ESports Chair Andy Miller, a minority shareholder in the NBA Kings
- Shanghai: NetEase Inc., the distributor of Overwatch in China
- Seoul: Kevin Chou, co-Founder and former CEO of mobile game developer Kabam
The parties declined to disclose terms, but multiple industry sources said Activision Blizzard had hoped to get $20M for the permanent, exclusive right to operate an Overwatch team in some markets. The announcement comes after Activision Blizzard said little publicly about the e-sports league's development, a time period in which several organized teams disbanded. Activision Blizzard hopes to eventually sell 28 franchises across the globe.
See today's issue of SBD Global for more.
