{"id":2848,"date":"2018-04-30T15:13:33","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T13:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/?p=2848\/"},"modified":"2018-04-30T16:25:34","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T14:25:34","slug":"press-round-up-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/2018\/04\/30\/press-round-up-16\/","title":{"rendered":"PRESS ROUND UP #16"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This week, things are moving in esports business. At a time where China is about to welcome Fortnite, partnerships and investments keep raining. Here\u2019s Smartcast choice of the four big news to notice.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"toc_container\" class=\"no_bullets\"><p class=\"toc_title\">Sommaire<\/p><ul class=\"toc_list\"><li><a href=\"#Tencent_to_launch_Fortnite_on_Chinese_live_servers\">Tencent to launch Fortnite on Chinese live servers<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#ESL_signs_major_partnership_with_Vodafone\">ESL signs major partnership with Vodafone<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#North_to_sign_adidas_sponsorship\">North to sign adidas\u2019 sponsorship<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Splyce_finds_new_funds\">Splyce finds new funds<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span id=\"Tencent_to_launch_Fortnite_on_Chinese_live_servers\"><b>Tencent to launch Fortnite on Chinese live servers<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last week, Chinese giant Tencent announced that the very popular Fortnite Battle Royale <a href=\"https:\/\/esportsobserver.com\/tencent-details-chinese-fortnite-launch\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">would be expanding<\/a> to China. As a reminder, Tencent owns the licenses of Fortnite\u2019s most famous rival, PUBG, and of the world\u2019s most popular MOBA, League of Legends.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Chinese organisation plans to invest 15.8 million dollars for multiple features including marketing, infrastructures and competitions related to the game. According to Tencent, Fortnite will shape around \u201cregional and global professional leagues\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the meantime, PUBG just announced its first major tournament. The PUBG Global Invitational 2018 will take place July 25-29 in Berlin, Germany, and will be pitting 20 professional teams against each other for a $2 million prize pool.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span id=\"ESL_signs_major_partnership_with_Vodafone\"><b>ESL signs major partnership with Vodafone<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Electronic Sports League (or ESL)\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.esportsinsider.com\/2018\/04\/esl-and-vodafone-sign-international-esports-partnership\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">signed a partnership<\/a> with Vodafone. The British company is the third mobile operator in the world. Vodafone therefore becomes the \u201cpremium\u201d partner of IEM, ESL One and ESL Pro League. This partnership confirms Vodafone\u2019s step in esports. Both structures will work on how to promote diversity and women\u2019s participation in esports, with ESL Women\u2019s Sydney Open as a first test. Vodafone expands its influence as a sponsor, already being mousesports\u2019 partner in Germany and Giants\u2019 partner in Spain. They were already the major sponsor of Katowice\u2019s IEM earlier this year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ESL, MTGx\u2019s digital, online games and esports division, saw a 226% increase in sales &#8211; with esports sales up 32%, driven by over 70% growth in ESL\u2019s event revenues.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span id=\"North_to_sign_adidas_sponsorship\"><b>North to sign adidas\u2019 sponsorship<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Danish structure North\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.esportsinsider.com\/2018\/04\/north-signs-sponsorship-with-fashion-and-sportswear-giant-adidas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">signed a sponsorship agreement<\/a> with sportswear leader adidas. It confirms a pre-existing deal between both organisations, as adidas\u2019 logo could already be seen on the shirts of North\u2019s CS:GO team (its leading one). As of now, the partnership runs until the end of the year, but both parts are expressing the will to keep it going. This announcement doesn\u2019t seem so surprising, considering North\u2019s close links with Copenhagen Football Club, already sponsored by adidas.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The German giant can also be seen on Vitality\u2019s shirts since January 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span id=\"Splyce_finds_new_funds\"><b>Splyce finds new funds<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Esports structure Splyce\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/esportsobserver.com\/ledger-group-splyce-investment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">found a new investor<\/a>: The Ledger Group, a Canadian company specialized in targeted investment. <\/span><b>The Ledger Group will enter with a 1.5 million dollar donation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Splyce couldn\u2019t have hoped for more, as a franchise system will soon rule the LCS. Starting with the Summer Split, clubs willing to participate are required to pay between 8 and 10,5 million euros to enter the competition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Moreover, The Ledger Group decided to rebrand as OverActive Media to better reflect their focus on esports. The company looks to ensure a good spot on esports franchises\u2019 market. This strikes as the first big move from The Ledger Group in its attempt to enter the world of esports, after its investments in gaming company Askott Entertainment and in esports media Enthusiast Gaming Inc.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Cr\u00e9dits photo : fortune.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week, things are moving in esports business. At a time where China is about to welcome Fortnite, partnerships and investments keep raining. Here\u2019s Smartcast choice of the four big news to notice. SommaireTencent to launch Fortnite on Chinese live serversESL signs major partnership with VodafoneNorth to sign adidas\u2019 sponsorshipSplyce finds new funds Tencent to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":2850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[92,13,121,726,728],"tags":[1092,1085,156,99,100,1089,1093,1084,1086,1088,368,369,209,1090,1091,1029,352,1095,1083,1094,372,1087],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2848"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2848"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2861,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2848\/revisions\/2861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}