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Esports

Activision Blizzard Shopping New Deals For Overwatch

Activision Blizzard is "shopping additional media rights and major apparel and licensing deals for the Overwatch League," according to Ben Fischer of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Twitch is just five months into a two-year, $90M exclusive streaming deal that covers the globe except for China, "home to its largest fan base outside the U.S. by a wide margin." In China, two of the three streaming partnerships are one-year deals, meaning execs are "already back in market." Activision Blizzard Esports CRO Brandon Snow said that being able to return to the "massive Chinese market" with actual viewership data from the first four months of the season will "drive up prices." He said, "I would say that we see substantial growth in the media rights and distribution of our games." Snow "would not speculate on what those deals would be worth," but two league sources believe new China deals "could draw well into the eight figures annually" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 5/21 issue).

ESL ONE PARTNER: THE ESPORTS OBSERVER's Graham Ashton reported DHL will be the official shipping and logistics partner for ESL One events going forward, "handling the logistics of the competition" -- which includes transporting stage equipment and the competing gamer's chairs. DHL will be featured as a sponsor in livestream content, social media channels and other communications throughout ESL One tournaments. The first event to feature DHL as a sponsor will be ESL One Birmingham, which starts Friday (THE ESPORTS OBSERVER, 5/22).

GUNS OF BOOM: THE ESPORTS OBSERVER's Trent Murray reported mobile developer Game Insight partnered with tournament organizer ESL to "develop an esports scene for its mobile first-person shooter Guns of Boom." The game’s inaugural esports season will feature a $200,000 prize pool "spread across multiple events." ESL will add Guns of Boom to its open weekly tournament series, Go4, in North America and Europe. In addition to the open tournaments, Game Insight will host two invitational tournaments. The first will be a "stand-alone four-team European Invitational to take place in Katowice, Poland," on July 29. Later in the year, the eight best teams in the world will compete in a season championship in L.A. (THE ESPORTS OBSERVER, 5/21).

CHAIR PARTNER: Ashton also reported Newbee Gaming signed a partnership deal with gaming chair manufacturer Secretlab -- the club's first agreement with a non-Chinese brand. As part of the sponsorship activation, Secretlab will release a custom Newbee-branded version of its flagship Omega 2018 chair (THE ESPORTS OBSERVER, 5/22).

For more coverage of the business of esports, visit our partners, esportsobserver.com.

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