Each and every month, dozens of partnerships and sponsorships are announced in esports. It’s hard to keep track of every development if you don’t follow Esports Insider religiously, but even then, there’s a lot of content to consume.
To make things easier, Esports Insider has hand-picked a selection of the most impressive, surprising, and noteworthy deals that were announced in January 2020.
Vindex establishes partnership with IMAX
Esports infrastructure company Vindex established a partnership with Canadian cinema company IMAX.
Founded by MLG co-founders Mike Sepso and Sundance DiGiovanni, Vindex will create esports events and exclusive content to be shown in IMAX cinemas on a global scale.
Read the full article here.
Excel Esports appoints BT as lead partner
British organisation Excel Esports made multinational telecommunications company BT its exclusive lead partner.
As part of a multi-year sponsorship agreement, BT will act as a jersey sponsor for Excel Esports’ teams in Riot Games‘ LEC and UKLC.
Read the full article here.
T1 finds exclusive apparel partner in Nike
Korean organisation T1 announced sports apparel giant Nike as its exclusive apparel partner.
The deal will see Nike design uniforms for all of T1’s rosters, including its team in the LCK. Nike will also provide “cutting-edge training facilities” at T1’s headquarters in Seoul, which is set to open in 2020, to aid in “empowering” the organisation’s players.
Read the full article here.
Vodafone Giants enters partnership with Nike
Spanish organisation Vodafone Giants was the first European esports brand to become a global partner of sports apparel giant Nike.
To kick off the partnership, Nike released a co-branded apparel collection with the organisation on January 20th.
Read the full article here.
SK Gaming partners with Nike and 11teamsports
German organisation SK Gaming also partnered with sportswear giant Nike and online retail store 11teamsports.
The organisation revealed its 2020 season kits and merchandise collection to coincide with the announcement.
Read the full article here.
Team Reciprocity enters Latin America with Rainbow7 alliance
North American organisation Team Reciprocity entered an agreement with Latin American organisation Rainbow7.
As part of the deal, they combined infrastructures and produced joint marketing and content initiatives revolving around the co-branded team in Liga Movistar Latinoamérica, otherwise known as the Latin America League, the region’s official League of Legends competition organised by developer Riot Games.
Read the full article here.
Riot Games taps HUYA as Chinese broadcast partner for LCS and LEC
Riot Games appointed HUYA as the Chinese broadcast partner for its North American league LCS and European league LEC.
The Chinese live streaming platform was already the exclusive broadcast distribution partner in China for Korean league LCK.
Read the full article here.
Gen.G teams with Benefit Cosmetics for content series
Multinational organisation Gen.G entered a partnership with Benefit Cosmetics to produce a series highlighting female esports players and streamers.
The campaign highlights the players through their daily lives as players and influencers, and highlight their respective beauty routines along the way.
Read the full article here.
Dignitas and Verizon enter 5G-focused partnership
North American organisation Dignitas established a strategic partnership with telecommunications company Verizon.
As a result, the 5,500 square foot Verizon 5G Gaming Center in Los Angeles will serve as both a headquarters to the organisation and training facility for its LCS team.
Read the full article here.
Activision Blizzard enters multi-year deal with Google
Activision Blizzard will broadcast Call of Duty League, Overwatch League, and Hearthstone esports exclusively on YouTube.
This is part of a multi-year deal between Activision Blizzard and Google that also sees Google Cloud become the preferred provider of the developer’s game hosting infrastructure.
Read the full article here.