In 2015, the League of Legends Worlds championship tournament accumulated about 36 million unique viewers. A number that far exceeds the 14.7 million that watched the 2015 World Series and also beat out this past NBA Finals Game 7 which was announced as the most watched NBA game on ABC. Perhaps with these statistics in mind, Yahoo! Inc. decided to sign Yahoo eSports into a two-year agreement with ESL Gaming Network.
This agreement will allow Yahoo to stream and broadcast eSports through their own mediums and could potentially bring in new sponsorship opportunities for advertisers. Another opportunity for Yahoo eSports, which launched in March, is the streaming of tournaments for games like League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, Street Fighter V and Heroes of the Storm. “Our Yahoo Esports team is extremely excited to be partnering with ESL to bring greater coverage of its leading esports events, as well as innovate in new competitive formats and content offerings that we are sure will excite both fans and advertisers alike. Yahoo’s unique storytelling, highly talented editorial staff and global scale are a great combination with ESL’s experience and leadership in the space,” said Zachary John, Vice President of Yahoo Video and Esports.
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“ESL in a unique position to be able to offer access to some of the world’s best esports competitions, and having a partner like Yahoo Esports means we will not only reach a broader audience with a supreme quality broadcast, but also deliver exclusive editorial content for esports fans worldwide. Yahoo Esports is a fantastic partner to team up with for the broadcast and coverage of our key events, and we are looking forward to working with them on new and exciting content for our viewers,” said Senior Vice President of Sales at ESL, Nik Adams.
This deal follows a recent deal Twitter created with ELeague to gain the right to stream its events. With the number of followers esports have been gaining in the past few years, this deal with Yahoo eSports surely won’t be the last of these sorts.