Esports Market Watch: January 2017

Jonathan Pan

Published in

The Nexus

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Newsletter

3 min readFeb 1, 2017

Esports Media Rights Take Center Stage

Facebook continued its foray into esports by securing the exclusive rights to Heroes of the Dorm, the official collegiate tournament for Heroes of the Storm. This tournament was broadcasted on ESPN for the past two years and now will be live-streamed on the Heroes of the Storm Facebook page for the next two seasons. Facebook also announced that G2 Esports, a European esports team, will begin streaming on Facebook today. Note: while this is not an exclusive partnership, this is the first esports team to stream on Facebook.

These series of moves follows Facebook’s integration with Blizzard Entertainment last year, enabling players of Blizzard PC games to stream directly onto their Facebook timelines. Facebook’s expansion into esports is part of a broader battle between media companies trying to secure engaging, live content. Here’s a list of other esports media related deals:

YouTube acquired the exclusive streaming rights for ESL Pro League’s 2017 and 2018 seasons.
ESL and Movistar, the Spanish brand of telecommunication giant Telefonica, announced a deal to develop and promote esports in Spain. Movistar will also launch an esports TV channel that will feature 13 esports events this year.
The Big Ten Network, a joint venture between the Big Ten Conference and Fox Entertainment Group, partnered with Riot Games to start a season-long collegiate League of Legends tournament. Fox also announced FoxNet, a new division focused on video games, VR, AR, and location-based entertainment.
SporTV, part of the Globo Group, bought the TV rights for CBLoL, Riot Games’s official league in Brazil.

In addition to the increased activity in esports media rights, we saw continued influx of traditional sports organizations and owners entering esports this month. In the United States, NBA team Miami Heat acquired Team Misfits, Milwaukee Bucks owner Wesley Edens started an esports franchise named FlyQuest, and the Dallas Cowboys have expressed interest in buying an esports team.

In Europe, Danish soccer team FC Copenhagen started a esports organization called The North, and the Eredivisie, the premier soccer league in the Netherlands, started a FIFA esports league. In Brazil, soccer legend Ronaldo invested in Brazilian esports team CNB-eSports Club. In India, billionaire Ronnie Screwvala announced his plan to create India’s first major esports competition named UCypher. And finally, In Japan, soccer team Tokyo Verdy became Asia’s first sports team to sign a professional FIFA esports athlete.

THE BIG DEAL