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Leagues and Governing Bodies

Activision Blizzard Banking On New Overwatch League To Propel Its Esports Efforts

Activision Blizzard is making a "major foray" into esports, a once-niche genre that is now "reaching a tipping point," according to Michal Lev-Ram of FORTUNE. Revenue from esports will approach $700M this year. Activision's Overwatch League launching later this year will "essentially control all the competing teams and the distribution of all the games." Activision "thinks that these opportunities, combined with sponsorships and advertising, not to mention Overwatch-branded merchandise like T-shirts and hats, could bring the company billions in annual revenue as the e‑sports audience grows." The company's acquisition of Major League Gaming "hasn’t yet resulted in new operating profits." but the pedigrees of CEO Bobby Kotick’s recent hires "hint at how eagerly he wants to establish the company as a mainstream entertainer." Former ESPN CEO Steve Bornstein chairs Kotick’s esports division, while former Fox Sports Exec VP Pete Vlastelica is MLG CEO. The "Overwatch" title has "become Blizzard’s fastest-growing game to date," generating more than $1B in revenue and amassing 30 million players since its introduction just a year ago, showing "why it’s the game to which Kotick is harnessing his e‑sports ambitions." Kotick "hopes to make e‑sports more mainstream." One way he is "doing that: instituting teams that are city-based -- a first in professional e‑sports." Activision also "doesn’t have to deal with the legacy TV networks that have tied up traditional sports rights for years." Vlastelica said, “E‑sports is the first digital native sport. We’re not encumbered by the paid-TV ecosystem that keeps the content out of the hands of young people who, frankly, don’t watch TV" (FORTUNE, 6/15 issue).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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