Overwatch League franchise Los Angeles Valiant, owned by professional organisation Immortals, has entered a partnership with Lionsgate that will see it promote comedy feature film, Uncle Drew.
The movie features athletes Kyrie Irving, Shaquille O’Neal, Nate Robinson, Reggie Miller, and Chris Webber, alongside comedic actor Tiffany Haddish. Uncle Drew will be promoted on the jerseys of Los Angeles Valiant’s players ahead of it’s June 29th premiere date.
Never too old to be a Valiant fan. ?? #VALLA is partnering with @kyrieirving's new film, @UncleDrewFilm, in theaters June 29th!
➡️ https://t.co/0aD0uHa15v pic.twitter.com/LEFlllsEF7
— Los Angeles Valiant (@LAValiant) June 13, 2018
Ari Segal, President & COO of Immortals and Los Angeles Valiant commented on the partnership: “This collaboration with two of our partners, Lionsgate and PepsiCo, arms us with the resources, IP, and creative thinking to continue our goal of leading the esports world in innovation. This partnership will integrate a major motion picture with a top esports team and its fan base in a deep and contextual way that’s never been attempted previously in this space.”
It’s expected that fan activations will come as a direct result of this partnership, but no details have been shared at this time.
This isn’t the first time that Los Angeles Valiant has worked with Lionsgate. In February, a partnership was formed and saw the players on the team don an Ash vs Evil Dead logo on their jersey in an attempt to promote the third season of the Starz television series.
Peter Levin, President of Interactive Ventures, Games & Digital Strategy at Lionsgate added: “We saw incredible enthusiasm from LA Valiant fans when we announced our television jersey sponsorship around Stage 2 of Overwatch League, and with the LA Valiant winning the Pacific Division championship, we felt that Uncle Drew was the next logical fit. This collaboration not only underscores the continued success of our investment in the leading esports franchise but our ability to create exciting cross-promotional opportunities around properties that we know will excite our fans.”
The Overwatch League competitor announced a social change partnership with You Can Play earlier in June, and entered a peripheral deal with Razer the month prior.
Esports Insider says: This deal between Los Angeles Valiant and Lionsgate almost makes the previous Ash vs Evil Dead promotion seem like a warm-up. It’s definitely a unique partnership and promotion, and though we’ll never find out, we’d love to see just how much of an impact it really has.
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