SBJ Esports: Game On For Brand Exposure

Welcome to the first SBJ Esports newsletter. The editorial team at SBJ and our sister publication, The Esports Observer, will be bringing you breaking news, analysis, interviews and data insights every Wednesday afternoon from the competitive video game space.

Let us know what you think. Hit us up with any news. Our email addresses are below.

 -- Adam Stern, Trent Murray & Austin Karp

FIELD-OF-PLAY SPONSORSHIP OPENS NEW DOORS FOR RIOT GAMES

• Riot Games’ novel in-game signage system for its League of Legends title was a complex project that was a year in the making and inspired by traditional sports, writes SBJ's Adam Stern. The publisher unveiled the new modular branding product yesterday, with Mastercard and Alienware unveiled as the first two participating brands. This evolution affords brands a form of "traditional" signage exposure. Riot is believed to be one of the first esports publishers to roll out such in-game esports branding.
  
  
• Naz Aletaha, Riot Games’ head of global esports partnerships, tells SBJ Esports that she expects to roll out other in-game sponsors soon for other LoL Esports partners. Current brands that work with LoL Esports include OPPO, Axe Body Spray and Red Bull. “The idea for (Summoner's Rift) Arena Banners was born about a year ago as we asked ourselves how we could further lean into the digital nature of our sport to create unique ways to bring our partnerships to life,” Aletaha wrote in an email. “The response has been very positive from partners. Being on or next to the field of play is commonplace in sports, and the opportunities that placement provides is very familiar to our partners.” A source tells SBJ that the new arena branding assets were upsells for pre-existing partners.
  
  
• Riot worked with Nielsen to not only get a valuation of what the exposure could be worth to sponsors, but also get suggestions from the data firm on how it could make the branding more effective. Aletaha said that Riot focused on maintaining competitive integrity, which meant finding a way to only show branding to viewers (players won’t see it). Riot also made sure the branding wasn’t overly intrusive and that it was presented in a way that was alluring to potential partners.
  
  
• This "on-field" branding opens up a potentially lucrative opportunity for Riot, and if successful, could be copied by other game publishers. Aletaha also notes that Riot has "other product features in the immediate pipeline that will further explore this idea to provide further engagement opportunities.”

Mastercard is one of the first brands to receive in-game exposure within League of Legends

NATE NANZER TAKES ON EXPANDED ROLE AT EPIC

• As Epic Games continues to strike a range of collaborations for its Fortnite title, as well as take on other new projects, exec Nate Nanzer has quietly taken on a larger role with the company. Nanzer, who left Activision Blizzard Esports for Epic in mid-2019, quietly updated his LinkedIn recently to show that his title now includes head of global partnerships. Fortnite blogger @SomebodysGun first noticed the updated title.
  
  
• Epic did not respond to a request for comment, but sources said that Nanzer’s new title is made to reflect what was an already increasingly expansive role at Epic. Nanzer, an SBJ "Forty Under 40" honoree in 2019, still manages the competitive side of Fortnite.
  
  
• Epic has increasingly been striking unique partnerships for Fortnite, like the recent Travis Scott concert that drew more than 27 million players over the course of a weekend. Epic last year also bought Pysonix Studios, which publishes Rocket League. Improving that game's esports efforts has become another focus for Epic.
  
  
• Fortnite decided to hold off on holding a World Cup event this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, and this has likely also freed up time for Nanzer to work on other projects. Fortnite held its first World Cup event last year in N.Y. and is hoping to hold another one next year. -- Adam Stern

---------------- SPONSORED CONTENT BY UPPER DECK -----------------

• As the esports scene explodes, brands are learning to navigate the gap between this burgeoning industry and traditional sports on multiple levels. Media rights, sponsorship value and overall ROI battle for market share, but the winning model will ultimately rely on innovative partnerships and an understanding of the esports landscape.
  
  
• While many brands have struggled to strike the right chord within esports culture, two companies worked hand in hand to capitalize on this rapidly expanding market. Last year, traditional met nontraditional when Blizzard Entertainment, creator of the Overwatch League, partnered with Upper Deck, a company recognized for its premier trading cards and memorabilia.
  
  
• To engage fans all over the world, Upper Deck’s traditional line extends to exclusive sports figures, like Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, LeBron James, Wayne Gretzky and more. Looking to the future after more than 30 years of success, Upper Deck designed a platform incorporating a hybrid line of digital and tangible trading cards for the esports market -- aptly named “e-Pack.” Overwatch is the first major global pro esports league, with 20 teams based in cities across Asia, Europe and North America.
  
  
• Continue reading.

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DOTA 2 PRIZE POOL LIKELY TO SET ANOTHER ESPORTS RECORD

• Dota 2, one of the top multiplayer online battle arena games, will see the prize pool for its season-ending event, The International, once again set a record for the largest single-event prize pool in esports, reports The Esports Observer's Trent Murray. The uptick shows the continued global popularity of Dota 2, particularly as Valve, the game's publisher, was forced to delay this year's in-person event -- likely until 2021. A live event had been scheduled for Stockholm, Sweden, in August.
  
  
• How does Valve get the pool so high? The company offers up an initial pot of $1.6 million, and through the implementation of a product known as the Battle Pass, the game’s own community provides the rest of the prize pool, which last year surpassed $34 million. This year’s Battle Pass has been out for just over 24 hours and has already brought the prize pool to over $9 million at presstime, outpacing last year's pace and putting the 2020 prize pool on a pace for $40 million.
  
  
• The Battle Pass is popular because it gives players access to a wide array of in-game content, including new features, cosmetics, in-game events and more. It can be purchased at three price tiers, and 25% of those Battle Pass proceeds will be funneled directly to the event's prize pool. Other publishers offer similar in-game rewards to contribute to tournament prize pools, but no game comes close to the pool of money created around The International -- and no game utilizes a single product like Valve uses Battle Pass.
  
  
• The International is the only large-scale event that Valve owns and operates, and it continues to be one of the biggest annual events in esports  -- perhaps second only to the League of Legend World Championship. While Valve also publishes the popular game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, it only supports the game's two annual majors, with third parties operating those events.

APRIL DELIVERS STREAMING UPTICKS FOR MAJOR SPORTS TITLES

• With quarantine in full swing in April, the five most-streamed sports video games saw substantial year-over-year upticks in viewing hours, according to an analysis of Newzoo Pro data by SportsAtlas' Will Cavanaugh. EA Sports' FIFA 20 title led the way last month in the category with over 35 million hours of content streamed across Twitch and YouTube. This influx of viewership was up 173% compared to the same period last year with the game's prior iteration.
  
  
• NBA 2K (+203%) and Madden 20 (+154%) saw triple-digit uplifts, while Rocket League (+53%) and MLB The Show (+41%) also experienced notable improvements.

SPEED READS

• Overwatch League today reported that its Week 16 average minute audience was 63,000 viewers, more than double the prior week. The league this past weekend both experimented with a new May Melee tournament format for Week 16, and it was also the first weekend of the season in which token drops were in effect. Token drops are incentives for players of Overwatch to watch OWL action by giving them in-game rewards for the amount of time watched. Activision Blizzard Esports President & CEO Pete Vlastelica: “We have worked hard with our partner YouTube to improve the live esports viewing experience for our fans.”
  
  
• Popdog COO Josh Swartz told SBJ Esports that a recent deal between the company's gaming management division, Loaded, and Boras Corp. around Phillies RF Bryce Harper “works really well, because we’re not going to get into the representation of players any time soon, and there’s not a ton of overlap (between Loaded and Boras Corp.) because we’re very heavily specialized in the gaming space.” The deal will see Loaded help build out Harper's gaming presence, particularly around Fortnite.
  
  
• "Monday Night Football" is still appointment viewing in the U.S., but the same can't be said for the League of Legends Championship Series. The LCS is expanding to Friday nights and eliminating a Monday night window due to low viewership, per The Verge, which noted the Monday games "alienated multiple audiences." Matches were "late in the evening for East Coast fans, and in the middle of the night for those in Europe."
  
  
• Houston Outlaws coach Harsha Bandi said in a podcast yesterday that Overwatch League’s weekly homestand concept was "flawed and that less frequent homestands would be better,” according to Dot Esports. SBJ first reported earlier this month that OWL is evaluating possible changes to its model for next year that could include having some online-only weekends.
  
  
• TBS' "American Dad" recently parodied the Overwatch World Cup in an episode of the animated show. It's the second time in the past year Overwatch has been parodied on a younger-skewing pop culture show after Adult Swim's "Robot Chicken" hit on the game in the fall. This all comes after "The Simpsons" devoted an entire episode to League of Legends last year, with Riot Games Director of Esports Whalen Rozelle -- an SBJ "Forty Under 40" honoree in 2019 -- among the execs who consulted on the episode.

Overwatch League was the focus of a recent episode of TBS' "American Dad"

NOMINATIONS OPEN FOR SBJ GAME CHANGERS!

• Online nominations for Game Changers have opened. We’ll be accepting nominations through midnight June 21. The Game Changers event will be Oct. 27-28, and a special section will run in SBJ in the Oct. 19 issue.

Enjoying this newsletter? We've got more! Check out SBJ Media with John Ourand and SBJ College with Michael Smith. Also check out SBJ Unpacks on week nights, as we look at how the sports industry is being impacted by COVID-19.

Something on the esports beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either Adam Stern (astern@sportsbusinessjournal.com), Trent Murray (trent@esportsobserver.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessjournal.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).