Twitch and Blizzard have signed a 2-year deal for the broadcasting rights to the Overwatch League. Overwatch is a shooter for PS4, Xbox One, and PC: Blizzard aims to establish it as a professional eSports.
For the coming years, the streaming service Twitch holds the official broadcasting rights to the matches of the Overwatch League. The league starts on the night from Wednesday to Thursday.
The deal is set for 2 years and also includes the playoffs and championship matches. In addition to English, the streams will be available in French and Korean. Twitch will not provide German commentators (casters).
The deal is valid worldwide except for China – Blizzard will likely team up with another partner there.
Teams faced issues finding sponsors because the deal came so late
The deal was long anticipated, and it likely made it difficult for the teams that the Blizzard-Twitch partnership for Overwatch was announced so late.
According to the US site PC Gamer, the owner of the San Francisco Shock stated it would have been easier if they could have told sponsors a month ago who the distribution partner of the league is, but that’s how it is.
There weren’t really many doubts that Blizzard and Twitch would team up. Both companies have already collaborated on tournaments for other games.
The business site Venturebeat believes: Another option for Blizzard could have been Facebook, but the channel is not established for eSports. Twitch, which belongs to Amazon, however, already is.
Overwatch League aims to set new standards
The Overwatch League from Blizzard is modeled after American sports leagues like the NFL or the NBA:
- The teams are assigned to individual cities,
- the players have contracts, so they are professionals
- the schedule is broad – the league starts on Wednesday and lasts until June, with playoffs in July.
Overwatch currently not yet at the top of eSports
With Twitch as a strong partner for eSports, the Overwatch League has all doors open, however, there are still some question marks:
- In 2017, Overwatch was not in the top 5 for prize money, but only ranked 7th, still behind Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone. Overwatch was far behind giants like Dota 2, CS: GO, or League of Legends in 2017.
- Even on Twitch, Overwatch is currently not at the top, here it is, according to market researchers from newzoo, in terms of viewer numbers in 4th place – also behind LoL, CS: GO, and Dota 2.
Perhaps Blizzard can eliminate these doubts in the coming weeks and months with the Overwatch League. A home has now been found.
Interesting for Overwatch players:
