Turner and IMG’s ELEAGUE today announced several new and expanded business partnerships ahead of The ELEAGUE Major: Boston, with its final stage set to begin Friday, Jan. 26, including:
Twitch
Beginning with The ELEAGUE Major: Boston, social video service Twitch will serve as ELEAGUE’s official streaming service for its popular live event coverage. The multi-year agreement secures Twitch as the exclusive third-party digital destination for live coverage of ELEAGUE events.
“ELEAGUE and Twitch have formed an incredible partnership that has allowed ELEAGUE’s premium live event coverage to reach a highly engaged, digitally-native community of passionate fans,” said Craig Barry, Executive Vice President of Production and Chief Content Officer, Turner Sports. “The strong performance of our live event coverage on Twitch – including record-setting concurrent streams during last year’s inaugural ELEAGUE Major – speaks to why we couldn’t be more thrilled to continue this relationship.”
“The massive esports fan base on Twitch is passionate about being able to watch their favorite events as a shared experience driven by chat interaction,” said Justin Dellario, Director of Esports Programs, Twitch. “By partnering with Turner Sports as the exclusive third-party digital destination for live coverage of their wildly popular and record-setting ELEAGUE events, we are able to ensure our community can enjoy these competitions in the format they are most accustomed to.”
ELEAGUE will continue to present live coverage of its events via linear channels and its proprietary digital platforms, including the award-winning “ELEAGUE Game Command” mosaic video player on ELEAGUE.com. Live Twitch coverage of The New Champions stage will begin onwww.twitch.tv/eleaguetv at 10 a.m. ET on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 26-27, with the final day of live action starting Sunday, Jan. 28, at noon.
In 2017, The ELEAGUE Major Grand Final set a new Twitch record for the highest amount of concurrent views on a single channel with more than one million viewers.
Marketing Partnership Extensions with Dell/Alienware and HyperX
For more than a decade, Dell and Alienware have been critical drivers of the explosion of esports and partnered with ELEAGUE in early 2017 to continue those efforts. Serving as the esports brand’s exclusive PC hardware provider, Dell and Alienware continue that partnership into 2018. Their high-performance hardware will power all of the thrilling action during ELEAGUE competitions, including The ELEAGUE Major: Boston.
“The partnership with ELEAGUE will evolve our shared vision to deliver the best possible viewing experience for esports fans,” said Bryan de Zayas, Director of Gaming, Dell and Alienware. “Most recently, Alienware alongside Tobii has pioneered Getting Technical, a biometric-powered analytics tool specially tuned for ELEAGUE that enables fans to track the eye movements of their favorite esports players, providing a better understanding of in-game behavior and decision-making. As we look forward, esports fans can expect even more exciting things to come from our extended partnership with Turner Sports.”
HyperX, a dedicated support of esports for more than a decade, has been the official headset sponsor of ELEAGUE since its inaugural 2016 season. They return for another season and have a number of activities planned to tap into the excitement of The ELEAGUE Major: BostonNew Champions stage.
As a sponsor of esports competitions for more than a decade, HyperX is thrilled to be working again with Turner and ELEAGUE.” said Daniel Kelley, HyperX director of marketing. “ELEAGUE continues to impress with their production capabilities and we know that more fans of teams, competitions and games will get exposure to the gaming products we’ve developed to meet the needs of professionals and fans.”
Additional marketing partners activating within live coverage and on-site during ELEAGUE’s 2018 competitions include Boost Mobile, Kellogg’s Cheez-It, GEICO, and the US Air Force.
Since its inaugural 2016 season, ELEAGUE has continued to expand into new intellectual property and has created compelling marketing opportunities – on its linear television, digital and social platforms, as well as on-site at competitions – for both endemic and non-endemic brands. In turn, the number of advertisers supporting ELEAGUE has tripled year over year.
“Considering the passion and explosive growth of the community, esports continues to be an exciting early investment opportunity for brands,” said Seth Ladetsky, SVP of Sales, Turner Sports. “ELEAGUE has established itself as the preeminent brand within the space and continues to drive new innovations that push the sport forward, as well as introduce in new ways for fans and marketing partners alike to experience all of the action.”
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About ELEAGUE
ELEAGUE is the premium esports tournament and content brand formed in partnership between Turner and IMG that officially launched in 2016. A leader in the delivery of live event experiences, ELEAGUE content is regularly showcased on TBS and widely distributed across leading digital platform Twitch, as well as on ELEAGUE.com. Over its first two years, ELEAGUE has produced and staged three season-long competitions featuring Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, along with the first-ever Overwatch® Open. As recognition of its industry-wide impact, ELEAGUE was awarded its first-ever CS:GO Major in January 2017. The ELEAGUE Major Grand Final set a new all-time Twitch record with more than one million concurrent streams, and a total reach of over 3.6 million viewers throughout the course of the event. ELEAGUE received a Sports Emmy® nomination for Outstanding Studio Design and Art Direction in March 2017. In August 2017, ELEAGUE made its first entry into feature-length premium episodic content with the launch of ELEAGUE | Road To The International Dota 2 Championships. ELEAGUE also actively engages with the amateur gaming community, including hosting the GEICO ELEAGUE Amateur Series. It has continued to expand its portfolio of titles for the ELEAGUE Injustice 2 World Championship and The ELEAGUE Cup: Rocket League. ELEAGUE’s record-settingELEAGUE Major in 2017 built momentum for the brand to receive a second CS:GO Major bid, with the ELEAGUE Major: Boston set for January 2018.
