Insurance company Netsurance has become the latest sponsor of Dota 2 organisation Team NP. 
This is the Canadian company’s first move into esports and it joins the likes of GG Bet, FYM Hot Sauce and Loot Market. The deal will see Netsurance’s logo appear both on the North American team’s site and on all apparel.
According to the post on the Team NP site, the Netsurance President (who is said to be a Dota fan) commented: “As one of Canada’s first online insurance companies, we’re proud to support one of Canada’s first, and our favourite, professional Dota team, NP.”
Netsurance joins FYM Hot Sauce as a non-endemic sponsor of Team NP though they’ll have to go some to get fans as excited about insurance as they are enhancing their food. The likes of an insurance company recognising the potential of esports team sponsorship is arguably more important than the likes of hot sauce creators and energy drinks. If a company which sells insurance, something that’s a thousand miles away from the high octane drama and energy that is esports, then it clearly recognises its growth as an industry.
As for Team NP themselves; they performed fairly well at the Boston Major late last year and since then have recruited Pittner ‘bOne7’ Armand.
Armand has joined as Team Coach in late January. At the time he said: “I’m happy to join Team NP as their coach. I bring to the table a deep understanding of how my former teammates operate and think about the game. We shared many memories in the past and I look forward to building something great together. Maybe it takes being a coach to convince my team to buy TPs.”
The team is currently taking part in the Kiev Major qualifiers.
Esports Insider says: We welcome the not-so-exciting sponsors into esports with open arms as their involvement shows recognition of that extra layer of legitimacy of the industry as a whole.