Game developer 2K, the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and the NBA 2K League have secured a multiyear partnership to bolster its esports ecosystem.
The partnership will enable NBA 2K international esports events to take place for national basketball federations.
Moreover, the collaboration aims to help identify regional talent; provide opportunities for eFIBA participants to enter NBA 2K League events, and establish a national team competition structure. The NBA 2K League Draft was also mentioned as one of the events eFIBA participants could enter.
According to a release, FIBA’s esports calendar (eFIBA), will feature qualifiers, regional finals and the eFIBA World Finals, every year. The regional finals will represent Europe, Asia and Oceania, Africa, and the Americas.
In a bid to bolster its competitor base, eFIBA has also teamed up with esports conglomerate ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) to create the first-ever eFIBA window. Aside from the project being a ‘key lever’ in making esports more accessible to new players, exact details surrounding the window have yet to be revealed.
Through the partnership, FIBA is looking to help onboard national basketball federations into the esports ecosystem. This includes supporting national teams to boost participation in new competitions.
National basketball federations are not completely new to the esports scene. In fact, 60 national teams competed in 2021’s FIBA Esports Open competition.
The federation’s significant push into esports, and strengthened integration into NBA 2K, is due to the company’s fan engagement strategy. FIBA has stated that the strategy, aimed at Gen Z demographics, aims to grow the global basketball audience. To do this the federation is looking to leverage the popularity of esports to attract new fans.
Debuting in 2018, the NBA 2K League is the biggest competition in all of basketball esports. Played on NBA 2K, the franchise league currently has 25 teams, ranging from esports divisions of popular NBA teams to standalone organisations such as DUX Gaming and Gen.G.
