North American esports organisation Evil Geniuses has expanded its partnership with cryptocurrency betting platform Thunderpick to include its Dota 2 roster.
The two parties will join forces to create exclusive team content and fan activations as Evil Geniuses gets ready for The International 12, Dota 2’s world championship, this October. Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed.
Evil Geniuses was the first South American team to finish in the top four at a Dota 2 Major tournament during the DPC circuit. Earlier this year in May, Thunderpick became a Marquee Partner for all of Evil Geniuses’ CS:GO teams.
Thunderpick is a crypto casino platform with a Curacao licence, offering users betting on esports, sports and casino games. The platform has gained increasing popularity in the esports space over the past year, notably launching a $600,000 (~£468,000) prize pool CS:GO tournament series from July to November.
Leonard Edwards, Head of Global Partnerships for Evil Geniuses, commented: “We’ve been so happy with Thunderpick as our presenting partner on the Counterstrike side, and are thrilled to harness this support for our Dota 2 team.
“This collaboration has been mission-aligned from the start to bring esports experiences to wider audiences and support players. Its expansion reflects the continued shared vision and investment from both our organisations to advance the success of esports on a global scale.”
This marks the second partnership for Evil Geniuses since Nicole LaPointe Jameson stepped down as CEO of the organisation in September 2023. The first was a content and activation-focused deal with esports training platform Game Gym in mid-September.
The International 2023, set to commence on October 14th, will be the final major event to qualify teams using the Dota Pro Circuit method. Earlier this month, Valve announced that it would discontinue the Dota Pro Circuit after The International 2023 to make room for third-party tournament operators to create more tournaments and an innovative Dota 2 ecosystem.
