Vorsprung durch Astralis – Audi enters esports

German car giant Audi has become the latest to move into the esports space having partnered with CS:GO team Astralis.

The deal was revealed by Astralis on their Twitter yesterday as they released a series of photos showing their new team jerseys, fresh for the ELEAGE Major adorned with the world famous car manufacturer’s crest. 

Christian Weiglin Thorn, Head of Marketing at Audi told Mashable: “Looking into the numbers, we saw that there actually is a substantial number of mature people within the esports audience.” 

“It’s fantastic news for esports and a validation of our world, that a non-endemic brand like Audi chooses to work with Astralis and Counter-Strike” Astralis’ founder Frederik Byskov told Dot Esports. 

It’s the latest in a spate of huge sponsorships in the esports space; with Audi joining the ranks of Visa, Adidas and a plethora of traditional sports teams with their investment. According to Dot Esports, the deal may be worth around €700,000 (£605,000) which would sit amongst the biggest partnership deals in esports. 

The all Danish CS:GO roster is a player owned organisation, with Frederik Byskov (previously quoted), the manager, also joining players karrigan, dupreeh, dev1ce, Xyp9x and cajunb as co-owners of the organisation. They head to Atlanta to compete in the ELEAGUE Major which gets underway in two days time as one of the tournament favourites. Their first match-up will be against GODSENT. 

Esports Insider says: This is another sweet partnership – Audi is definitely a cool one to manage to grab. Huge sponsorship is becoming infinitely more common now, and we’re sure this is but a proverbial drop in the ocean.