German software corporation SAP has expanded its presence in esports by becoming the official analytics partner of PGL Esports‘ upcoming Dota 2 tournament, The Kuala Lumpur Major.
The exact usage of SAP’s skills and software at the event hasn’t been detailed, but the announcement explained that the partnership would help to “boost the viewer experience”.
SAP is a sponsor of popular organisation Team Liquid and partnered with ESL in September to improve the fan experience during pick & ban phases at ESL One Hamburg, which took place over October 23rd-28th. This included historical data for the players and teams in attendance from prior events, which is something that could well be used once more at the Major.
The Kuala Lumpur Major will be hosted over November 9-18th at the Axiata Arena, with 16 teams competing for their share of the $1,000,000 (£763,195) prize pool.
Official partners of the upcoming Major include Secretlab, Thermaltake, astro, ERA, HITZ, GOXUAN, Circle Animation Studio, and Parkroyal. Sponsors of the event are Monster Energy, U Mobile, HyperX, KFC Delivery, Predator, Intel, and now, SAP.
The Kuala Lumpur Major is the first of three announced Major tournaments in the 2018-2019 Dota Pro Circuit season. Recently, the Chongqing Major from StarLadder and ImbaTV was announced for January 29-27th 2019, and the CORSAIR DreamLeague Season 11 – also known as The Stockholm Major – was unveiled for March 14-24th.
Esports Insider says: SAP is a major player in its industry and there is a lot of potential in esports. A lot of untapped and unprocessed data is readily available for tournament organisers, processing and presenting this data will be key to engaging spectators moving forward. With that in mind, we’re glad to see events starting to utilise SAP’s expertise and products.