NBA 2K League Managing Dir Brendan Donohue said the NBA has been "exploring esports for several years now" and the league has "been involved in esports" with titles other than NBA 2K for a while, according to Graham Ashton of the ESPORTS OBSERVER. Donohue said the development of the NBA 2K League has been a "process over the last seven years, of walking NBA 2K towards esports." Donohue: "If you played the game seven years ago, they introduced the notion of 'My Career,' where a player could create their own avatar and personal player. Then, in the last three years they introduced the mode PRO-AM, where you could truly go in and play 5-on-5 with nine other human beings. All of these things have been leading up to the game becoming an esport." Discussing how to reach an NBA fanbase, Donohue said game developer 2K Games "knows who played the game." Donohue: "They have incredible data on their customers, and the community in that respect. We know NBA fans are all across the globe. We see this as a great way to engage an NBA audience." On the topic of working with the NBA for media rights, Donohue said, "We’ve had fantastic conversations with both current NBA partners and new partners." Donohue: "It’s opened up some great opportunities for us to explore partnerships with non-NBA partners." He added, "We’re realizing as we’re talking to them and exploring how to activate a partnership, the ease of activation in the NBA 2K games specifically. For example, whether its courtside signage or logos in an arena, that’s something that, if you didn’t see that in an NBA or 2K game, would be more strange than to see it" (ESPORTSOBSERVER.com, 10/25).
YOU GOT FIVE? The GLOBE & MAIL's Rachel Brady examines the NBA 2K League and said the 17 NBA teams that have agreed to participate will "draft five of the world’s best 2K gamers, move them to its city [and] house them." The players will have "access to their NBA team’s facilities, all the muscle of its marketing department, and opportunities to earn additional sponsorship deals." The league will have "one or two central locations -- production studios -- to which all teams will be flown to play the games." Donohue said, "This is going to be another way to engage with our fans. Two-thirds of our fans on social media are outside North America, and one-quarter of 2K games are sold outside the continent. We have an online version of the game being played on Tencent in China that has 34 million registered users. It's difficult for those fans to attend an NBA game, so this is another way to reach them. It definitely has a global appetite." MLSE Chief Commercial Officer Dave Hopkinson said, "There will be detractors out there sneering at eSports, saying 'they're not athletes, no one will show up for that,' and those detractors are dead wrong." Brady notes NBA teams will "aim to turn their 2K gamers into celebrities." The Raptors will promote them on "broadcasts, social media, inside the arena and at events" (GLOBE & MAIL, 10/26).
