Overwatch League' Adds Two New Pro Sports Names to Ranks
August 10 2017 - 12:50AM
Dow Jones News
By Sarah E. Needleman
Activision Blizzard Inc. netted two more big names in
professional sports for the videogame league it expects to launch
by the end of the year.
Stan Kroenke, owner of the National Football League's Los
Angeles Rams, and his son Josh Kroenke, president of the National
Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets, bought the rights to one
of two teams that will be based in Los Angeles. Jack Etienne, owner
of esports organization Cloud9, bought the rights to a team in
London.
Activision Blizzard plans to announce the new owners
Thursday.
The videogame giant is building its esports league around
"Overwatch," a team-based shooter videogame with a cartoonish bent
that launched in May 2016. The nine teams revealed to date were
sold for $20 million apiece, according to people familiar with the
matter.
That amount is double the fee Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s Riot Games
in June said it planned to charge qualifying teams to join its
North American league next year for "League of Legends," a
team-based battle game released in 2009.
In esports, teams or individuals compete at videogames, often by
controlling virtual characters. Players sport jerseys, have
corporate sponsors and vie for million-dollar-plus prize pools.
Fans watch matches at stadiums, on live streaming sites such as
Amazon.com Inc.'s Twitch and a growing number of television
networks.
The Overwatch League will require teams to pay players a minimum
annual salary of $50,000 and provide health insurance, a
retirement-savings plan, housing and a practice facility.
Others details about the league, though, haven't yet been
disclosed, including the start date and where matches will be
broadcast.
Fans won't initially have the opportunity to watch local teams
compete in stadiums, as Activision Blizzard has said owners are
still establishing venues.
Activision Blizzard last month announced the sale of seven other
teams. The buyers included groups backed by Robert Kraft, owner of
the NFL's New England Patriots, and Jeff Wilpon, operating chief of
Major League Baseball's Mets, which bought rights to teams in
Boston and New York, respectively.
The other five owners all hail from the videogame industry.
Activision Blizzard's publishing partner in China, NetEase Inc.,
will operate a team in Shanghai; NRG Esports, an established
esports outfit, has the rights to a team in San Francisco. Other
teams will be based in Seoul, Los Angeles and Miami-Orlando.
Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN on Monday said Activision Blizzard is
finalizing a deal to sell the rights to a team in Austin, Texas, to
the owner of an esports organization called Team EnVyUs. Activision
Blizzard declined to comment on the report.
Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 10, 2017 01:35 ET (05:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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