Activision Blizzard is "trying to dominate the emerging business of professional video-game play by developing leagues, hosting tournaments and airing them live on its own online channel," according to Christopher Palmeri of BLOOMBERG NEWS. Pete Vlastelica, who this week left Fox Sports to join Activision Blizzard's Major League Gaming division as President & CEO, said, "More traditional leagues and sports broadcasters look with some amount of envy on the engagement and functionality around live streaming that has been part of e-sports from day one.” Palmeri reported Activision in December acquired MLG.tv for $46M, and the site this year is "producing a series of competitions leading up to BlizzCon, the annual fan event for the company’s World of Warcraft and other games." Teams from the U.S., Latin America and Australia and New Zealand will "compete in regionals in Columbus, Ohio, on Oct. 8 and Oct. 9, vying for a spot in the finals." Activision Chair & CEO Bobby Kotick "sees an opportunity to promote" e-sports players globally, and the company "plans to sell franchises in 50 large cities worldwide." Vlastelica said that he "sees a lot of opportunity for Activision in owning the games, developing leagues and having the network the tournaments air on" (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 9/7).
MAKE IT SIMPLE: ESPN.com's Darren Rovell wrote Vlastelica's first goal is to "help simplify the sector to make it easier for those who watch sports to also watch esports." Vlastelica said that part of that will "require doing behind-the-scenes work to make rules across leagues and disciplines more clear." He said of his move to e-sports, "It's been on my radar for a while. But now seems like the right time. It's the first digital native sport not encumbered by the typical distribution issues of other sports, and what is being watched is already being streamed and has engagement on a massive scale" (ESPN.com, 9/7).
