Swiss luxury watchmaker TAG Heuer has joined the Porsche Esports Supercup as its title sponsor.
Alongside the sponsorship, the total prize pool for the Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup has been doubled from $100,000 (GBP84,132) to $200,000 (GBP168,342).
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Now in its second season, the competition was launched by the German car manufacturer in 2019 in co-operation with sim racing platform iRacing.
Kjell Gruner, Vice President of Marketing at Porsche, commented on the sponsorship in a release: “Porsche stands for exceptional experiences. Esports racing offers such an emotional Porsche experience to many fans of our brand and the ‘Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup’ is our most important virtual racing series.
“After a very successful premiere in 2019, we are now about to start the second season with a strong partner at our side. Porsche and TAG Heuer are already a great team in Formula E. Now TAG Heuer, as a brand with heritage, is helping to further establish the most aspirational competition in esports racing.”
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2019 champion Josh Rogers, Maximilian Benecke, Sebastian Job, and Mitchell de Jong have all been invited back for the 2020 season having finished in the top four places last season. They will be joined by 36 other drivers who will compete for the prize money across ten events, beginning on May 2nd.
Stephane Bianchi, CEO of TAG Heuer, spoke on the decision: “After joining forces in the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team this season we are excited to now extend our successful collaboration further into the Esports world. Both our brands are masters of challenges, innovation and precision.
“As an avantgarde watchmaker with historic ties to the track, esports is a fantastic new platform for us to showcase our values and support another dynamic and passionate community in the world of motor racing, where competitiveness comes alive in the digital age. We are looking forward to providing an unmatched Esports experience together with Porsche and iRacing and seeing the world’s elite road simracers push their limits.”
Esports Insider says: TAG Heuer has a very rich history in motorsports so it’s great to see it engaging in sim racing, an industry that has recently seen massive exposure for obvious reasons. We’re not surprised to see brands jumping over now that esports has proven it can continue through such an unfortunate time.