Video Game Sports Hits the Big Time

$90m deal for streaming rights for The Overwatch League

You may never have heard of the Overwatch League, but it is a professional eSports league for the video game Overwatch, developed by Blizzard Entertainment. One of its top stars — a professional video game athlete — earns $150,000 a year and gets a share of the team’s bonuses.

Now, it’s in the big leagues. Twitch is paying the Overwatch League $90 million dollars in a two-year agreement for streaming rights, according to Sports Business Daily. Incredible! Games will stream in English, Korean, and French and be shown worldwide (except in China).

Some of the league’s teams are owned by big name sports owners, including the company that owns the LA Rams, Denver Nuggets, and Colorado Avalanche. The Kraft Group (owner of the New England Patriots) owns the Boston franchise. The Philadelphia Fusion is owned by the NHL’s Flyers ownership group and the New York team is financed by the COO of the NY Mets.

What is Overwatch

SOURCE: Wikipedia

Overwatch is a six-versus-six team-based first-person shooter video game. Broadly, the goal is to work with team members to eliminate or repel opponents as to make an attack on an objective, or to defend an objective. Players select from the game’s roster of more than 25 heroes, each with their own pre-designed set of weapons and skill kits, though each player on a team must play a unique hero. A player can switch to an available hero if they are eliminated prior to respawning, or if they return to their current spawn point, which allows for teams to adjust their composition dynamically based on the current situation.

Twelve teams, each based in a global city, will compete in the League’s inaugural 2018 season. They are divided into two divisions: the Pacific Division with the teams on the American West Coast and Asia-based teams, and the Atlantic Division, with the American East Coast and European teams.

Info on where to watch.