Each month, Esports Insider recaps the biggest esports sponsorships and partnerships from the month prior. Below is our list of the biggest partnerships from July 2023.
July 2023 saw major deals with non-endemic brands, including Pepsi, Crunchyroll, NASCAR, AT&T and more.
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Food and beverage conglomerate PepsiCo announced a new multi-year global partnership with EA Sports to position three of its flagship brands — Pepsi, Gatorade and Lay’s — as partners of EA’s upcoming EA Sports FC title.
The partnership aims to broaden audience reach and deepen fan engagement with the football fandom via the newly-independent EA game. The global, multi-year deal — the exact length or terms was not disclosed — is the result of a “shared agenda,” PepsiCo’s Head of Global Sports and Partnerships, Adam Warner, told Esports Insider.
League of Legends and VALORANT developer Riot Games has announced a significant three-year collegiate partnership with esports company GGTech Entertainment for its North American ecosystem.
As a result, GGTech will be Riot Games’ official provider of its North American collegiate programme. Notably, this includes the College League of Legends and College VALORANT competitive season. League of Legends has had a notable presence at the collegiate level since 2015 with the introduction of the North American Collegiate Championship (NACC).
Gaming monitor and peripherals brand AGON by AOC has expanded its existing partnership with Brazilian esports organisation FURIA.
As a result, AGON by AOC will provide the organisation’s players with its range of monitors and peripherals. In addition, FURIA‘s players will provide feedback to AGON by AOC engineers to enable the brand to further enhance its product portfolio.
Anime streaming service Crunchyroll has revealed a collaboration with fighting game event Evolution Championship Series (EVO) for its upcoming edition.
Taking place August 4th to 6th in Las Vegas, Nevada, EVO 2023 showcases a range of esports competitions across various fighting titles, each boasting a minimum prize pool of $25,000 (⁓£19,100).
Online Chess platform Chess.com has announced that its penultimate event of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour season will be sponsored by Swiss private bank Julius Baer.
The event will be called the 2023 Julius Baer Generation Cup, with the competition taking place online for its $235,000 (~£182,000) prize pool. The event on August 30th is the fourth leg of Chess.com’s $2m (~£1.5m) series. Despite being a game played offline for centuries, Chess has recently found a growing younger audience due to the game’s transferability into a virtual discipline.
Esports tournament organiser Rally Cry has announced a collaboration with streaming platform Twitch to bolster advertising opportunities for League of Legends’ North American Challenger League (NACL).
The first deal as a result of the collaboration is with car-sharing marketplace Turo, with the company becoming NACL’s presenting sponsor. Rally Cry and Twitch will collaborate on sponsorship sales for Riot Games’ tier-two League of Legends competition for North America, which Rally Cry organises.
North American stock car racing league NASCAR has announced a partnership with global esports organisation Gen.G.
The partnership will see NASCAR and Gen.G perform a number of activations, including Gen.G content creators working with NASCAR during races, and a watch party for the upcoming Rocket League Major near the stadium in Boston. NASCAR is one of the world’s most popular racing organisations, and is also no stranger to esports.
Tribe Gaming, one of North America’s biggest mobile-focused esports organisations, has announced a multi-year strategic partnership with telecommunications company AT&T.
The deal will see AT&T branding prominently feature across Tribe Gaming’s jerseys and throughout its network of creators. The companies will also collaborate on exclusive content. Tribe and AT&T have additionally teased a ‘one-of-a-kind experiential activation’ set to take place this autumn. Whilst further details have not been revealed the release highlights that it aims to embody ‘the mobile in mobile gaming’.
Airline Korean Air has announced a partnership with the Korean national esports team for the Hangzhou Asian Games.
As a result of the partnership, Korean Air will create marketing activations around the Games, which will debut esports as an official meddled sport. Moreover, the airline’s logo will be displayed on the uniforms of South Korea’s esports team.
UK-based esports organisation Guild Esports has announced a partnership with digital advertising service Pixels AI.
As a result of the deal, Guild Esports aims to generate advertising revenues from its owned video content using Pixel AI’s optimisation tools. The one-year deal marks Pixel AI’s first foray into the esports industry. The company uses AI to connect publishers and media rights holders by matching content to relevant websites.
Esports holding company GameSquare and dairy advocacy group Dairy MAX have launched ‘Level Unlocked’, a gaming campaign that includes Complexity Gaming and marketing agency ZONED Gaming.
The new campaign, which is part of an expanded partnership between GameSquare and Dairy Max, will see the dairy non-profit work with gaming creators to produce a content series that showcases how they incorporate dairy into their routines.
Enthusiast Gaming, the parent company of North American esports organisation Luminosity Gaming, has announced a partnership with furniture manufacturer Steelcase.
As the official performance seating partner of Luminosity Gaming, Steelcase will provide the organisation’s content creators and professional players with chairs to showcase the manufacturer’s product. Moreover, Luminosity and Steelcase will create content featuring the organisation’s content creators, players and coaches.
