North American esports organisation TSM FTX, which earlier this month struck a $210M naming rights deal with crypto trading platform FTX, has appointed Erik Marino as Vice President of Apparel. 

In his new executive role, Marino will be responsible for overseeing the creative development for all TSM FTX apparel.

A recognized leader with more than 20 years’ experience in developing high-profile brands in the streetwear space, Marino joins TSM FTX from gaming organization FaZe Clan, where he served as Executive Creative Director.

In his tenure at FaZe, he was responsible for building out the foundation and infrastructure for their highly-successful merchandise apparel division and leading a growth in sales revenue in just the first year. Prior to FaZe Clan, Erik partnered with hip hop legends Wu-Tang Clan, overseeing all creative, sales, and merchandise distribution. 

With a career that is deeply rooted in the music and streetwear communities, Erik was the co-founder of the internationally known music lifestyle brand Rocksmith, based in NYC and Tokyo. Under his creative and business direction, the brand grew from a footprint in independent boutiques to worldwide recognition with distribution in major retail outlets such as Foot Locker, Snipes, Macy’s, and Karmaloop. 

During his tenure with Rocksmith, Erik also executive produced several co-branded pieces of content, including music videos featuring music superstars Kendrick Lamar, Future, 2 Chainz, and more. 

Commenting on his appointment, Marino said: “It is an honor to join a premier esports org like TSM FTX, who I admire not only for their winning heritage but also for being pioneers in the business of gaming and esports on a global level.”

Walter Wang, TSM Head of Operations, added: “TSM FTX fans have made it known – loud and clear – that they want an improved experience when supporting our organization, and that means more premium apparel and better merch. With Erik onboard leading the division, we are exceedingly confident that we will be able to deliver what our fans are asking for — and so much more. I can’t wait to show the world some of the projects Erik has been working on!”

AYO.NEWS says:

With merchandise becoming ever more important to the financial viability of esports organisations, and TSM having just landed the huge FTX naming rights deal, it’s only natural the organisation wants to up its merch game, and Marino is clearly more than capable of doing that.

Staying with TSM, in April the organisation launched a new collegiate program, TSMU, designed to provide quality mentorship, guidance, support, and community for university students looking to learn and engage with the global esports industry. 

Brawl Stars Master League, a new $100K USD esports competition, has announced a string of LATAM football clubs will be participating. 

Atlético Nacional, América de Cali, Boca Juniors, Club América, Corinthians, Chivas, Cerro Porteño, Flamengo, Liga de Quito, Nacional, River Plate, Universidad de Chile, and Universitario, will be competing in the event, with each boasting an exclusive in-game skin. 

Each team will be organising tryouts to find players to represent them in the event, which is, according to organisers, the first international esports tournament solely featuring football clubs. 

The Brawl Stars Masters League will consist of a group stage, playoffs, and grand final, and is set to kick off in September 2021, and run through to December.

Warner Music Australia has become the first official Music Partner of DoorDash LCO, Australia’s top tier League of Legends competition. 

The collaboration will see music from Warner featured in LCO broadcasts throughout Split 2, including a Song of the Day highlighting one track from LCO’s playlist. 

In addition to being made available via Spotify, fants will also be able to access the playlist on a panel below LCO broadcasts, and by typing !playlist in Twitch chat. 

Graeme Du Toit, Head of Sales and Marketing at ESL, commented: “This partnership is one I’m really excited about. It’s only a first step in a hopefully long and successful partnership with Warner Music, but music adds so much vibe to broadcasts and video content that we make for the league. Our fans are young, highly engaged digital consumers, who listen to music on a daily basis, so to be able to introduce them to some of the biggest bangers that Warner music has to offer is a great fit.”

A Warner Music Australia spokesperson added: “We’re extremely excited to launch this partnership with the LCO. We see this as an amazing opportunity to reach a highly engaged and relatively untapped audience in a time where the worlds of Music and Gaming have never been closer. We’re looking forward to introducing some of our amazing Australian and New Zealand artists to the broadcast.”

Staying with Warner, in January, Warner Music Central Europe partnered with the LEC for the third year, while in April, Warner Music Asia announced a collaboration with Esports Players League (ESPL).

Australia-based esports organisation ORDER has partnered with social media analytics company Zoomph. 

The partnership will provide ORDER with audience insights, logo detection, social analytics, and sponsorship tracking, enabling the organisation to gain a better understanding of the value derived from their fans, content, players, and teams. 

Nick Cronin, Co-founder of Zoomph, commented: “ORDER is another fantastic addition to our growing esports network, we are always looking for passionate, international, and fun brands to work with. WORDERe hopes to provide added value to their partnerships and their fan experience through our platform as they continue to make impressions across all social media platforms.”

Chris Orfanellis, Chief Gaming Officer at ORDER, added: “As we work to diversify our operations into the content and lifestyle space, it is important to understand our audience, affinities, online value, and potential areas for growth. We aim to continue to attract the best talent and grow aggressively in the esports space and believe Zoomph’s platform will help us do so.”

ORDER currently fields teams in League of Legends, CS:GO, VALORANT, Rainbow 6, and Street Fighter V, and has partnerships with PUMA, Logitech G, Alienware, and Optus.

Simplicity Esports has teamed up with Esports Entertainment Group subsidiary ggCircuit to mine cryptocurrencies. 

The Florida-based esports and gaming company has begun using its gaming PCs to passively mine crypto currencies, including Ethereum, while the machines are idle. 

Roman Franklin, CEO of Simplicity Esports, said: “We continue to find innovative ways to leverage the largest footprint of esports gaming centers in the U.S. for increasing revenue. We plan to have the first PCs mining Ethereum as soon as next week, and plan to rollout this strategy at all new locations that we acquire or build, as long as it remains economically viable.

“The beauty of the ggCircuit program is that initiating and halting mining activity can be done with the push of a button. At current levels, we expect to generate $100 to $125 in Ethereum per month per PC by mining during idle periods on the machines, including overnight.”

AYO.NEWS says:

This is definitely an interesting way of generating some extra revenue from machines that would otherwise be idle. As long as the electricity costs and wear and tear on the PCs allow it to be viable, there’s no reason this can’t be a nice earner. Will other esports organisations and gaming centres follow suit?

Fast sports and esports content, live streaming, live data, and odds supplier, BETER, has entered a strategic partnership with Bayes Esports. 

As a part of the agreement, Bayes Esports will supply real-time data for popular esports tournaments to BETER, whereas BETER’s esports trading department will offer odds with even better accuracy and increase open odds uptime to 95%.

Alex Barkar, CEO at BETER, commented: “We’re proud that we signed a partnership agreement with Bayes Esports. It will definitely help us achieve the goals set for 2021: to maximise the distribution of our content to new clients and markets, including in Asia, where betting also plays a big role. For more than three years, we at BETER continue to make BETERable content, as well as help our clients to harness new market opportunities and provide thrilling content for bettors.”

Mark Balch, VP Esports Betting Services at Bayes, added: “We see this partnership as a great synergy of client-focused services and robust solutions. By combining our technology-driven products and machine learning algorithms with BETER’s trading team’s experience, we will make a real impact in the betting industry.”

Staying with BETER, earlier this month the company inked a trading and content deal with Asia Pro League, the new Central Asian sports league.