ESL and DreamHack have entered a deal with Blake Broadcasting covering tournament broadcast rights in the US, Canada and Asia (minus China).

The agreement will run from March 2020 through July 2023, with over-the-top streaming service CBNN acting as the exclusive satellite channel for the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive ESL Pro Tour and Dota 2 competitions during the period.

CBNN’s coverage will include tournaments like the Intel Extreme Masters, ESL One, ESL Pro League, DreamHack Masters and DreamHack Open, along with studio broadcasts, highlights, news and interview content.

The broadcaster says its strategy, which includes regional distribution through cable, free-to-air satellite, and OTT streaming, will introduce esports to millions of new homes in North America and Asia.

Discussing the deal CEO of Blake Broadcasting, Bob Blake, explained:

“Our channels are dedicated to providing only the highest quality esports, news, sports, and entertainment content for our viewers, and this ground-breaking deal will make CBNN the largest television broadcaster of esports outside of China.

“We could not find a better partner to provide premium esports content than ESL and DreamHack. Combined with our support from SES and MX1 and our other major content providers and partners, we will be delivering the best in premium esports programming, which will be the priority anchor for our sports initiatives going forward.”

While CCO of ESL, Thomas Schmidt, added:

“ESL and DreamHack are extremely focused on improving the coverage and reach of our events, and with this partnership, our tournaments and other content will be available to hundreds of millions of satellite- and cable-equipped homes.

“Our agreement with BBN is in line with our ambition to expand our programming to mainstream audiences without compromising our world-class digital coverage for the esports community that we’re committed to serve.”

Black Broadcasting says it delivers more than 1,500 news stories each month, covering sports, fashion, entertainment, technology, music and film. The company claims its network has 60 million daily viewers, 46 major partners globally, 82 websites in operation, and 12 different news feeds.

It recently partnered with global satellite operator SES as its exclusive satellite network provider for CBBN networks in Europe, Asia and North America. CBNN is slated to go live across Europe in January 2020, with operations based in Luxembourg, it will go live in Asia in March, and North America, based out of Florida, in June.

Meanwhile, Modern Times Group (MTG), owner of both ESL and DreamHack, has morphed DreamHack into DreamHack Sports Games, in an attempt to close the gap between traditional sports and esports, focusing on competitive leagues and broadcasts.

AYO.NEWS says:

This deal will expose a lot of new viewers to esports, but its ultimate success will depend on its execution. TV esports coverage so far has been hit and miss to say the least, and mostly failed to connect on any meaningful level with fans – probably because most fans don’t really look to traditional satellite or cable TV for entertainment anymore. However, the TV broadcast market is still big, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Note to Blake Broadcasting: for the sake of peoples’ eyes, please sort out that white text on bright yellow backgrounds!

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

Riot Games has revealed the recent League of Legends World Championship Finals attracted record viewership.

According to Riot , views reached 21.8M global average-minute-audience (AMA), and hit as high as 44M concurrent viewers.

The Worlds 2019 finals took place in Paris on 10^th November, when Europe’s G2 Esports took on China’s FunPlus Phoenix, with the Chinese team lifting the trophy. The event was broadcast in 16 languages and across more than 20 platforms.

AMA is favoured by both Riot and Activision Blizzard, who in partnership with Nielsen are pushing for the metric to be the standard measure of esports viewership. AMA is a measurement of the average audience at any given moment of a broadcast, and as such is similar to standard Nielsen ratings.

Activision Blizzard has been reporting AMA metrics since 2018 – reporting an AMA of 1.12M for the 2019 Overwatch League Grand Finals.

AYO.NEWS says:

The viewing figures are certainly impressive, and its good to see Riot, Activision and Nielson work to standardise metrics, so that everyone can make more accurate and meaningful comparisons.

Putting things in perspective though, according to Fifa, an average of 191 million viewers tuned into each match during the 2018 World Cup in Russia – but this just shows how much growth potential space for growth still exists for esports.

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

ESL UK has confirmed that all its staff in positions facing the axe have opted to take voluntary redundancy.

It became public knowledge that ESL was planning to restructure its global organisation, and that its UK operations were being reviewed, when an official internal memo was leaked earlier this month.

Now the company has confirmed that, although ESL UK will be continuing with all its existing initiatives, including the ESL Premiership, a number of staff members would be let go of, and they had all agreed to take voluntary redundancy.

The company says the moves are not a reflection of the performance of ESL UK, or British esports, but rather part of an effort to streamline its global business, and that UK operations will in future be supported by ESL employees in Germany and Poland.

Commenting on the news, CEO of ESL UK, James Dean, explained:

“The ESL UK mission has always been to grow UK esports and we remain 100% committed to that cause. We therefore look forward to returning on January 2nd after the Christmas break when the office will reopen and when we will continue to contribute to the burgeoning UK esports scene.

“I am incredibly proud of the achievements the UK entity has had over the past eight years. We have organised hugely successful events such as the ESL Premiership and ESL One events that both players and fans love.”

AYO.NEWS says:

This is the last news staff will have wanted at this time of year, but at least ESL seem to be managing it carefully, as indicated by the voluntary redundancies. Though esports is still exploding in popularity globally, no one can deny the UK is now facing unprecedented economic, social and political challenges, so maybe the company is erring on the side of caution regarding where it focuses its business resources.

We wish all the staff affected the best of luck in finding new, even better positions.

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

Yesterday saw the launch of the Global Esports Federation (GEF), backed by Tencent Esports.

Headquartered in Singapore, the federation is the first body of its kind directly backed by a game publisher. GEF’s president is secretary-general of Singapore’s National Olympic Council, Chris Chan, and, according to Chinese publication People Esports, the federation aims to hold an international tournament at the start of next year.

Also involved with GEF are former secretary-general of the Chinese Olympic Committee and honorary life vice-president of the Olympic Council of Asia, Wei Jizhong; former Olympian and founder of NGU consultants, Charmaine Crooks; and vice-president of Tencent Holdings and CEO of Tencent Pictures, Cheng Wu.

The GEF board also includes CEO of OverActive Media and former CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee, Chris Overholt; CEO of the British Esports Association, Chester King; Chief Business Officer of Italian football club AC Milan, Lorenzo Giorgetti; and Chief Investment Officer of Calypso Investment and former Chief Business Officer of British Petroleum, Adrian Lismore.

Illustrating the extent of its ambitions, in an announcement at its launch conference the GEF claimed it wanted to be the “voice and authority for the worldwide esports movement.” Apparently, it also aims to establish national esports federations, integrity guidelines, governance structures and an athlete commission.

AYO.NEWS says:

At the moment the esports industry has no globally recognised governing body, instead made up of a decentralised web of game publishers, which own rights and regulate competitions, and multiple national and regional governing organisations.

Though the new Global Esports Federation (GEF) certainly has some impressive talent onboard, and powerful backers in the form of Tencent, it remains to be seen if the organisation will be able to convince the disparate nodes of the esports world to unite under its banner (or, should we say, “submit to its authority?”).

Note: there is already a Global Esports Federation (GEF), based in London. Aimed at providing esports education, it already claims to work with over 2,500 esports organisations, more than 500 sponsors and over 100 leagues. Maybe the new GEF should have Googled first?

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

Deutsche Telekom has acquired a 25% stake in German esports organisation SK Gaming.

Negotiations for the deal started way back in June 2018, when the mobile communications company, which owns the T-Mobile brand, became an official partner of SK Gaming.

Discussing the news CEO of SK Gaming, Alexander T. Müller, said:

“With Deutsche Telekom, we intend to further develop the eSports sector, and in some ways to redefine it. In the course of our cooperation in the past, we’ve managed to move forward a lot at many different levels. We’re now looking forward to taking the next steps together.”

While Head of Sports Sponsorship at Deutsche Telekom, Hiro Kishi, added:

“Our acquisition underlines the importance and value that Deutsche Telekom places on eSports and gaming. Our networks, products and services provide the best possible environment for the eSports and gaming community. SK Gaming is the perfect partner with whom we can cooperate to shape the market into the future.”

SK Gaming fields teams in Riot Games’ LEC, FIFA, SMITE, Clash Royal and Hearthstone, and is also owned by FC Köln, Mercedes-Benz, and Müller – each 25% each (read more). Deutsche Telekom is also an official partner of Riot Games’ Premier Tour.

AYO.NEWS says:

The fact that negotiations for this deal have been ongoing for so long gives an indication of how much value Deutsche Telekom now places on esports! Staying with SK Gaming and communications partnerships, just two weeks ago we reported the organisation had announced Chinese tech brand OnePlus has its official smartphone partner (read more).

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

Chinese esports organisation eStar has acquired a franchise spot in Riot Games and Tencent’s League of Legends Pro League (LPL).

A couple of new spots had been offered for the 2020 season, which starts in June, by LPL organiser TJ Sports, and eStar has landed one of them.

eStar was able to successfully bid for the spot after receiving investments totalling more than ¥100M ($14.3M) from former Chinese Invictus Gaming League of Legends player Liu “pdd” Mou and the Wuhan Tourism Development Investment Group.

Discussing the news eStar investor Liu Mou, said:

“As an esports practitioner, it is my dream to own one esports club to compete in the LPL. After establishing YM Esports Club in 2015, four years have passed and the club has become one of the famous academy teams in China. However, it is still a shame that we didn’t obtain the LPL spot.

“I prepared a lot for this bid and finally partnered with Wuhan Tourism Development & Investment Group to invest eStar Esports Club. It is really tough to obtain this year’s LPL franchise. We will work hard to lead this newbie and try our best to face the challenge in the future.”

Wuhan-based eStar was founded in 2015 and has since grown to be one of China’s most successful esports organisations, competing in Honor of King’s Pro League and the CrossFire franchised league, and having earned a total of $2.4 million in prize money in Honor of Kings.

The organisation is set to open a home venue in Wuhan next year – the first home venue for a Chinese mobile-focused esports organisation.

eStar joins prominent names like Edward Gaming, FunPlus Phoenix, Invictus Gaming, LGD Gaming, Royal Never Give Up and Vici Gaming in the LPL.

AYO.NEWS says:

This marks quite a jump for eStar, but their investors obviously have faith in them, coughing up a considerable amount of cash for the LPL spot. It will be interesting to see if the currently mobile-focused organisation can make the transition to the very different PC scene.

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.