Tournament organisers ESL and DreamHack have entered a three-year broadcast partnership with live streaming platform Twitch.
From 2021, the English streams for “major” ESL and DreamHack events will be exclusively broadcast on the platform.
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The deal sees Twitch named as the global digital media partner of ESL and DreamHack events on a non-exclusive basis in 2020, before exclusivity comes into play through to 2022. The agreement includes all ESL Pro Tour tournaments for CS:GO, StarCraft II, and Warcraft II, as well as ESL Pro League, IEM, DreamHack Masters, and DreamHack Open.
Benjamin Vallat, SVP of Alliances and Corporate Development at Twitch, commented on the deal in a release: “ESL and Twitch have been key players in the history of esports as we know it. The continuation of our partnership will strengthen not only the content offerings for fans, but also the greater esports community that ESL, Dreamhack, and Twitch have cultivated over the years.”
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Twitch will become a “centralised hub” for ESL and DreamHack broadcasts, working with the tournament organisers for integrations and sponsorships for the duration of the agreement.
Roger Lodewick, Co-CEO at DreamHack, added: “This partnership is a milestone for DreamHack, both as a company and community. Our cooperation with Twitch dates back to 2009 when it was still Justin.tv — this new collective media partnership is reconfirming our long-standing collaboration and highlights the importance and relevance Twitch has to our community, as well as the value the ESL/DreamHack esports content brings to the global Twitch audience.”
Throughout 2020, ESL and DreamHack have been cooperating to sell media rights for the ESL Pro Tour, securing deals in Poland, Norway and Finland.
Esports Insider says: The ESL Pro Tour for CS:GO has worked wonders for the tournament organisers when it comes to media rights revenue, and we’ve no doubt that this is a big deal for all involved. Also including StarCraft II and Warcraft III in the deal makes for an interesting package deal.
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