Each week, ESI Digest breaks down the weekly happenings in the esports industry, making sense of things so you don’t have to. As well as being housed on YouTube, ESI Digest is available on all major podcast platforms and is also available in written form below.
This week on ESI Digest, we cover Cisco’s move into League of Legends, Pittsburgh Knights’ deal with SeolHaeOne Prince, Dignitas’ selling the naming rights to its CS:GO roster, and plenty more.
VIE.gg acquires naming rights in expanded Dignitas deal
North American organisation Dignitas expanded its deal with publicly-listed esports betting company VIE.gg.
VIE.gg is sponsoring Dignitas’ jersey for CS:GO in addition to owning the naming rights, with its logo front and centre – just above a large “DIG” emblem – with red accents. In addition, the bookmaker will produce “strategic digital and physical activations” with Dignitas aimed at the New Jersey marketplace, a location it first targeted in June.
TD Bank enters esports with Toronto Defiant sponsorship
OverActive Media announced that it has signed an agreement to make TD Bank the official bank of its Overwatch League franchise, Toronto Defiant.
This is the first esports partnership for TD Bank, also known as Toronto-Dominion Bank, which is one of the largest banking groups in Canada and also operates in the United States. The agreement is being activated through online events such as a fan appreciation weekends, meet-and-greets, and grassroots tournaments.
Team Heretics to launch fan token through Socios.com partnership
Spanish organisation Team Heretics partnered with tokenisation platform Chiliz to launch its own token for its fans.
The deal will allow fans that purchase tokens to vote in “key decisions” and earn “exclusive digital and real-life rewards. through Chiliz and Socios.com. The fan token will launch on August 25th, with 125,000 being available in the initial offering until August 27th.
Each token will cost EUR2 (GBP1.81) in the initial offering, though the price will be determined by supply and demand once the period closes. There’s a total supply of 5,000,000 tokens, according to a release.
League of Legends esports enters multi-year deal with Cisco
Riot Games announced that it has partnered with multinational technology conglomerate Cisco for League of Legends esports.
The multi-year partnership will see Cisco become the official enterprise networking partner of League of Legends esports. Cisco will provide Riot Games’ flagship title with several upgrades, including an update to ‘The Realm’ – the private game server used for the League of Legends World Championship, Mid-Season Invitational, and All-Star Event.
Pittsburgh Knights partners with SeolHaeOne Prince parent company APE
SeolHaeOne Prince parent company Absolute Power eSports (APE) entered a partnership with North American organisation Pittsburgh Knights.
The multi-year deal will see Pittsburgh Knights and APE “establish operations in South Korea and United States,” with the teams looking to acquire a spot in the new LCK. Should SeolHaeOne Prince end up being one of the teams to enter a long-term partnership with Riot Games for the LCK, Pittsburgh Knights would look to increase its investment in years to come.
ESI Digest is part of ESI Network, a collection of podcasts encompassing the esports industry. For deep dives into the major areas of esports with subject matter experts, check out ESI Focus. For conversations with key personnel and major stakeholders in esports, ESI Insight is the series for you.