ELEAGUE has added yet another non-endemic sponsor to its seemingly ever-growing roster by welcoming Kraken Black Spiced Rum as its official distilled spirits partner. The deal officially kicked off during the ELEAGUE Street Fight V Invitational.
Manufactured by Proximo Spirits stateside, Kraken Black Spiced Rum has signed a “unique and comprehensive” one-year deal with the Turner and IMG-owned esports league.
This partnership includes all of ELEAGUE’s platforms across television and digital means and will produce the ELEAGUE KRAKEN Boss Battle – a new feature that sees fans face off against professional players in front of a live audience. A custom-branded website will be launched for the feature, housing recap videos, a leaderboard that lists the top five competitors, and other unique tidbits. This content will be shared across ELEAGUE’s social channels and website, as well as on TBS.
Seth Ladetsky, Senior Vice President of Sales for Turner Sports discussed the partnership: “Growing into one of the preeminent esports brands, ELEAGUE has provided advertising partners – both endemic and non-endemic – with an expanding canvas of innovative marketing opportunities that tap into the passion of our fans. That is exactly what we are doing with The Kraken Rum, and we are excited to introduce them into the space and to our highly-engaged fanbase.”
As a means of celebrating this new-found partnership, Kraken Black Spiced Rum will be the presenting partner for ELEAGUE’s E3 Industry Party in Los Angeles on June 11th. Guests will be able to walk the “Kraken black carpet” and will receive gifts.
Other perks of the partnership will include “branded content integration” across all ELEAGUE programming, including its AdTracker and promotion via its digital channels. Other non-endemic sponsors ELEAGUE has brought into the industry include the US Air Force, Geico, Boost Mobile, and Cheeze-It. Other, more familiar, sponsors are the likes of Alienware and HyperX.
Esports Insider says: ELEAGUE has a history in bringing in companies that haven’t dealt with esports and partnering with them, so while we weren’t necessarily expecting an alcohol to get involved in this capacity, it’s not too much of a shock. The ELEAGUE KRAKEN Boss Battle sounds like a fun result of the partnership, the final result should be interesting.