Riot Games Announces eSports Deal With Disney’s BAMTech
Riot Games and the Disney backed company, BAMTech, have announced that they have entered into a first-of-its-kind long-term commercialization partnership to deliver professional League of Legends esports content in regions around the world.
Here are the details from Riot Games:
We will be working closely with BAMTech to grow revenue in our sport through various means, including sponsorship and advertising. Beginning next year, we’ll also be collaborating to push the boundaries of the esports viewing experience, leveraging BAMTech’s best-in-class technology to create additional possibilities and opportunities for fans to access, and connect with, League of Legends.
This is a game changer for our sport. As we’ve said in the past, true economic sustainability is a critical means to ensuring a sport that lasts, and this represents a major step towards that goal. As an innovator in digital sponsorship and media sales, BAMTech will help us unlock long-lasting and meaningful value for our digital sport as it matures. In BAMTech, we have found a partner equally committed to building professional League of Legends towards the lasting future we believe in for teams, players and fans. We’re honored by their faith and belief in our sport.
A leading technology services and video streaming company formed by Major League Baseball, BAMTech has designed, developed and distributed world-class fan viewing experiences to millions worldwide across its many traditional sports, news and entertainment partners. We’re proud to represent their first step in the esports world and in partnership plan to create innovative and rich ways to add to fans’ existing options for viewing their League of Legends esports content. We’ll be sharing news on important milestones and projects in the future.
A development of this magnitude could only be possible with the kind of passionate fan base that supports League of Legends. Fans always will be the foundation for strong and successful sports. This kind of commitment to, and investment in, the sport we all love is a tremendous vote of confidence, and we believe this will unlock incredible things as we build our future together.
Our Take:
Disney have been keeping an eye on how entertainment is being consumed, with their 33% $1 billion stake in BAMTech, Disney want ESPN to launch a new subscription service featuring different sports, moving away from its current model, as customers cut the cord on cable and satellite subscriptions.
The “League of Legends” deal comes after Disney agreed to pay $1 billion for a 33% stake in BAMTech. With the investment, ESPN is planning to launch a new “multi-sport” direct-to-consumer subscription service, similar to BAMTech’s other platforms like the WWE Network, Sony VUE, and are also behind other sports networks like NHL, MLB and PGA.
Esports has continued to grow and the recent 15-day “League of Legends” 2016 championship tour was seen by 43 million unique viewers, and resulted in 370 million hours of live video being consumed on platforms like YouTube and Twitch. As Video Games become a larger part of entertainment, eSports, Streaming and Lets Plays will continue to get more popular.
What do you think of this deal?