The Electronic Sports League has agreed to a five-year partnership with the Anshutz Entertainment Group, a global firm focused on sports and music promotion, in an effort to better host and promote eSports events around the world.
This is kind of a big deal because AEG operates and/or owns stakes in a number of prominent sporting venues, including the Staples Center in Los Angeles and the O2 in London.
The Staples Center has already played host to eSports events (most notably the world championships for Riot’s League of Legends) and now it seems AEG is interested in getting a bigger piece of the eSports boom.
“We are sitting on what we think is the evolution of a new spectator sport,” AEG Facilities chief Chuck Steedman told Bloomberg. “How many times in your lifetime can you say there’s a new spectator sport out there? I don’t think it’s happened in my lifetime.”
Detaills of what the AEG/ESL team-up is meant to accomplish are vague; in a press release, the pair stated that ESL will now have easier access to “AEG’s global network of more than 120 clubs, theaters, arenas and stadiums for qualifying events, tournaments, and world championships,” and that AEG will be helpng out with things like event promotion, sponsorships and ticketing.
Perhaps more interesting, for eSports-curious devs, is that the pair claim to be “looking to develop new eSports events” as they work to expand ESL’s reach around the world — especially in the Asia Pacific region.