Fan engagement platform Espo has added three more organisations to its roster of partnered teams.
Built by Gamers, Team BDS and BOOM Esports join the platform to access and engage with Espo’s pre-launch private demo, which aims to become a hub for fan and brand engagement in esports.
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Espo has been busy signing up esports organisations, sponsors and reporters to its prelaunch private demo, having already brought GODSENT, Team Queso and Fade 2 Karma on board. With the addition of three more teams, Espo looks to engage and test its product across the North American, European and Southeast Asian markets.
Upon release, partnered teams will run a series of launch-day activations and monthly campaigns on Espo where esports fans can unlock and redeem a variety of fan perks offered by their favourite teams and players.
While the finer details of what those fan perks will exactly look like is yet to be confirmed, Espo has hinted that features such as IP team merch, fan vs. fan tournaments, gaming house virtual tours, behind-the-scenes access to match days, competitions for content creators, giveaways from sponsors and personalised messages from players.
On the new team partnerships, Espo Founder and CEO, Henry James stated: “I feel like Espo has found the turbo button when it comes to the interest we have been receiving from a number of the most competitive and popular esports teams. BBG, BDS and BOOM join F2K, GODSENT and Team Queso as our team partners. Take a closer look at these teams and you’ll see they deploy killer strategies in-game and in the board room.
“Our team partners support our vision to bring esports fans closer to the action and they are the pioneering teams working collaboratively with our Brand Partners to provide reward-based fan engagement.”
Along with being a means for teams to engage with fans, the platform also aims to be a conduit for businesses and partners to work with esports organisations, with a particular focus on revenue, activations and fan engagement.
With an organisational focus on Fortnite and VALORANT, Built By Gamers Founder and CEO, Todd Searle, noted that the organisation is “excited to partner with Espo as it provides a crucial solution to the esports world. For BBG, providing unique opportunities for fans to engage with their favourite players is a priority. Espo will bridge that gap while also allowing brands and other partners to participate. This is an important step in the evolution of our brand.”
The partnership is also a great point of potential growth for Swiss-based Team BDS, with its Executive Director, Renaud Pierre Baijot commenting that “we are beyond excited to start working with Espo. They will help us bring Team BDS to a whole new level by helping us engage with fans and secure key partnerships with international brands.”
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BOOM Esports CEO, Gary Ongko Putera concluded: “We are excited to be joining Espo as one of their chosen Team Partners from the region. From day one, the vision and the mission is to become one of the biggest esports brands in the world. This is an exciting new step in achieving our goals with Espo and we will be able to bring BOOM closer to our global fanbase. Can’t wait to start the partnership!”
Esports Insider says: Espo looks to have built up a decent suite of teams to work with and test its product. Fan engagement platforms can be hit or miss, especially so if the content that fans care about is behind some kind of paywall. Seeing how the platform pans out will be interesting to watch.