Talent agency Excel Sports Management has partnered with Activision Blizzard to help find sponsorship opportunities for the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League. The partnership is a notable step into esports for Excel, which traditionally manages marketing for top athletes and brands across the NBA, MLB, and the PGA Tour.
Excel will collaborate with the existing esports partnership division at Activision Blizzard. The partnership hopes to identify new commercial opportunities in categories that are not currently customary in esports. Excel plans to leverage its existing sales experience in traditional sports to find brands that are “eager to embrace the crossover between major sports leagues and esports,” according to a press release.
Excel reps star athletes such as the NBA’s Blake Griffin and Kevin Love, MLB’s Clayton Kershaw, as well as golfers Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas. The company employs notable sports agents such as Casey Close, Mark Steinberg, Jeff Schwartz, and Sam Goldfeder.
The Overwatch League and Call of Duty League, which both shifted to remote online play amid the pandemic, are already connected to traditional sports. Traditional sports owners that also own teams in Activision’s OWL or Call of Duty League include the Wilpon family (owns the New York Mets), the Wilf family (owns the Minnesota Vikings), New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke, Sacramento Kings owner Andy Miller, and Philadelphia Flyers parent company Comcast Spectacor.
