FNATIC has been shortlisted in the 2017 European Sponsorship Association (“ESA”) Awards, under the “Rights Holder of the Year” category. In doing so, the esports organisation becomes the first esports brand to be shortlisted for an ESA Award.
The Rights Holder of the Year category “recognises organisations that are demonstrating development within their industry through sponsorships and partnership engagement with other leading brands”. The ceremony for the winners will be at the Science Museum on Wednesday 7th February, 2018.
The Shoreditch headquartered organisation has penned a number of significant deals in 2017, including Deezer and OnePlus whilst Monster Energy remain a long-standing partner of the organisation. FNATIC now join an illustrious list of traditional sports clubs who have previously been shortlisted, including the likes of Arsenal and Manchester City. Last year, the award was won by The Snowbox Festival.
Wouter Sleijffers, CEO of FNATIC said: “Fnatic is an innovator, not only in the future of sports, but also as Rights Holder for renowned and new brands looking to launch and position themselves into the global gaming and esports audience. Whilst many esports rights holders are still finding themselves to prove their value, FNATIC has built out an incredible reach into the audience with proven and captivating capabilities to engage with the global fans.
To be recognised by ESA is a great honour. Not only because we’re the first in esports, we can now also measure ourselves against the likes of Extreme Tech Challenge (ETC) and Holi Festival of Colours. It’ll be a real coup for FNATIC and for the esports industry as a whole if we collect the award in February. We know we’re getting our strategy right and to be recognised for doing so is a great end to 2017.”
Esports Insider says: Congratulations to our friends over at FNATIC as they continue to be recognised for fabulous work. It’s another first for an esports organisation! They’re up against tough competition so like Wouter says, it’ll be interesting to see how they are compared to the wider world.