In-game advertising opens up new worlds of possibilities.

With video gaming and esports now a dominant cultural phenomenon worldwide, in-game advertising is an exciting new frontier – so, Simona caught up with Niklas Bakos, CEO & Founder of Adverty, a company leading the way, to find out more.

Discover more about Adverty here.

Ukrainian esports organisation Natus Vincere has announced a partnership with Chinese streaming platform HUYA.

The two-year agreement covers Na’Vi’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) player streams, broadcast to the Chinese market. In addition to Egor “flamie” Vasilyev, Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, Denis “electronic” Sharipov, Kirill “Boomb14” Mikhailov, and Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy, from Na’Vi’s main CS:GO roster, it also includes Junior players Alexey “Topa” Topchienko, and Eugene “Aunkere” Karyat.

Commenting on the news Natus Vincere CEO, Yevhen Zolotarov, said:

“The negotiations with HUYA started a long time ago and I am glad that today they were completed. We are starting a partnership that will allow Na’Vi to reach the largest and, more importantly, the most active audience in the world. It’s great that Na’Vi is getting closer and becomes more open to the Asian fans of our club.”

Natus Vincere currently fields teams in CS:GO, Dota 2, Rainbow Six, Apex Legends, PUBG, and Fortnite, and has commercial partnerships in place with brands including Monster Energy and Logitech G. 

AYO.NEWS says:

HUYA has been making an effort to partner with more non-Chinese esports organisations recently – reflecting the growing demand for international action in the world’s biggest esports market. 

In July, HUYA announced partnerships with North American esports organisation Dignitas, and with Latin American esports event organiser Live Media, while in July the streaming platform extended its existing deal with Team Liquid, and entered a new partnership with European organisation Team Secret. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Egyptian esports organisation Anubis Gaming has raised €253K ($300K) in its latest seed funding round. 

The new investment has come from a “regional ecommerce group”, and follows another seed round in August which raised €84K, bringing the total raised since founding to a respectable €379K. 

Cairo-based Anubis Gaming has been competing internationally since 2015, and in 2016 gained official recognition from the Egyptian Ministry of Youth and Sport. It has competed in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, and Crossfire (in which it is current MENA regional champion). 

According to Anubis Gaming Founder, Youssef Mohsen, the organisation is planning to use the new capital to add international coaching staff, launch an apparel line, recruit more players to “compete on different new fronts,” and move into a fully equipped gaming house and training facility. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Anubis certainly has big plans for a relatively modest investment – but we guess it goes quite a bit further in Egypt than Europe or North America. Still, it’s great to see local investors get behind North African/Middle Eastern esports, and hopefully it will help catalyse the whole regional scene. 

Staying with the Middle East, last month ESL and Acer announced they would be expanding the CS:GO Predator League into the EMEA region later this year. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Ubisoft has revealed plans for the first-ever Rainbow Six World Cup, and announced former NBA pro Tony Parker as ambassador. 

Featuring teams from 45 countries and regions, the event is slated to start in Summer 20201, with Ubisoft saying it will highlight international rivalries and add an independent layer of competitions to the Rainbow Six Esports ecosystem. 

Announcing the event, Ubisoft said:

“We often see pro players and community showcase their national pride and enthusiasm throughout events. International rivalries emerged, and a question is raised, over and over again: which country or region truly is the best at Rainbow Six Esports? 2021 will be the year to settle this.”

On 14 September 2020, the Ubisoft esports team, local pro players and coaches, and the Rainbow Six Siege community will start the process of selecting National Committees for each of the 45 participating countries and regions.

Qualifiers will begin in the Winter, with 31 teams from Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and North Africa, competing across five groups. The qualifying teams will then meet the 14 invited national squads – including those from the USA, Canada, and Brazil, in the final leg.  

Former NBA pro Tony Parker will be using his 20 years of professional competitive experience to provide advice on how to deal with the pressure that comes with high-stake international competitions. 

AYO.NEWS says:

This is an exciting development for the Rainbow Six community, giving players a chance to represent their country in a major international competition – something relatively rare in an esports ecosystem dominated by localised teams and competitions. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Global esports and gaming media group, production house and solutions provider, Dexerto, has appointed Richard Lewis as its first Editor-at-Large. 

Lewis, a veteran journalist and livestream commentator, and two-time Esports Awards Journalist of the Year winner, will be joining the Dexerto team on a permanent basis, as Dexerto.com’s first ever ‘Editor-at-Large.’

Best known for his investigative journalism, including blowing the lid off match-fixing and corruption in CS:GO gambling, and exposing sexual abuse in the industry, Lewis is also a former desk host at ELEAGUE, the host of The Richard Lewis Show, and has written for many esports publications. 

After having worked for Dexerto.com as a freelancer since November 2018, he will now take on a permanent role with the outlet, focusing on creating esports themed video-led content and commissioning work from other content creators. 

Commenting on his new appointment, Lewis said:

“Dexerto is the leading media outlet for esports news in the world and a major voice in digital culture for tens of millions of Millennial and Gen Z fans, so i’m really happy to assume the role as Editor-at-Large at the outlet. I’m looking forward to focusing on video-led content for the company and working closely with Dexerto ahead of the unveiling of its very own production studio in London.”

While Co-Founder and CEO at Dexerto, Joshua Nino De Guzman, added:

“Richard is one of the most important people in esports and has been a leading journalist in the industry for over a decade, before the name esports was even coined as a term. 

“As well as supporting his critical work, this also reflects Dexerto’s decision to bring more video and event content together, allowing us to continue to break the stories that matter while reinforcing our world leading coverage of both esports and influencer entertainment”

Dexerto recently made two other key hires, in the form of Matt Hattrick as Brand Agency Director, and Ken Olsen as Director of Creative Strategy. 

The company now has more than 20M unique monthly visitors, and reaches tens of millions of Millennials and Gen-Z’s each month by publishing 24/7 content across owned social and digital platforms in three major languages. 

Headquartered in London, Dexerto also has offices in the United States and France, and has content creators located in eight countries. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Congratulations to Richard for landing what is surely one of the sweetest positions possible for an esports journalist! To many more years of breaking stories and righting wrongs… Spidey-style. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

German esports organisation FOKUS CLAN has teamed up with local gaming supplement brand ACTIVAT3D. 

The partnership will see FOKUS CLAN players use ACTIVAT3D’s products, including its ‘Cyber Skills’ gaming supplement, and likely its upcoming product ‘Bionic Shield’, and provide feedback to the company. 

Discussing the deal Founder and Managing Director of ACTIVAT3D, Klaus-Alexander Werner, said:

“Esports players have become athletes and full-time professionals and accordingly deserve high-quality and well-designed nutritional supplements. Winning FOKUS CLAN as our first major partner fills us with both pride and anticipation. 

“The boys are ambitious in sports, extremely respected in their community and what was important to us from the very beginning – they have a sense for product development, share their open feedback with us and so we drive each other to new heights of performance.”

While a spokesman for FOKUS CLAN, Hanspeter Tinners, added:

“The cooperation with ACTIVAT3D offers us new perspectives and special added values on the level of sports performance for our players and the team. It is our claim to set new points of attraction again and again, especially in the sporting area, to see a further development in the team.

”With ACTIVAT3D we have not only found a partner who also lives these values, much more we have worked together on the development of the first product lines, tested again and again, developed further, tested again until we reached the best possible result for us.”

#Werbung
Wir freuen uns euch unseren neuen Partner vorstellen zu dürfen – ACTIVAT3D 🎉🔥 Willkommen im Team! 🤩#GETACTIVAT3D

ACTIVAT3D Homepage: https://t.co/zykqiK2UVw pic.twitter.com/hbuEXNr1Jc

— FOKUS CLAN (@FOKUSCLANGG) September 9, 2020

FOKUS CLAN also has commercial partnerships in place with luxury car manufacturer Audi, snack brand, Funny-Frisch, insurance giant Zurich, and sports store Outfitter. 

AYO.NEWS says:

The gaming supplements market is extremely competitive, so for ACTIVAT3D to land an organisation with the reputation of FOKUS CLAN for their first partnership is pretty cool. Of course, all supplements claim to be the best, so we’ll have to see what it does for FOKUS CLAN’s players. 

Staying with esports supplements, last month Canadian esports and entertainment company, Tiidal Gaming Group, announced a sponsorship agreement with supplement brand XP Sports. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020