Tag: eSports

• The deal will see the Gaming Channel own exclusive rights to broadcast BLAST Premier in Hebrew 

BLAST Premier has agreed a media rights deal with Gaming Channel, Israel’s first ever linear 24/7 esports and gaming channel. 

As part of the deal, Gaming Channel will own exclusive rights to broadcast BLAST Premier within Israel in Hebrew until the end of the 2021 season. The deal will cover BLAST Premier’s four remaining events of the year: Fall Groups (September 16-26), Showdown (October 12-17), Final (November 24-28) and World Final (December 14-19).

The Gaming Channel, owned by the Charlton Group, was launched back in July this year, bringing the first ever dedicated esports and gaming linear TV channel to Israel. The channel broadcasts a variety of content including live esports events, leading YouTube talent from the region, among other gaming and entertainment-themed content. 

Alexander Lewin, VP for at BLAST, said: “We are delighted to be able to give BLAST Premier fans from Israel the opportunity to watch their favourite Counter-Strike teams and players in a localised Hebrew broadcast, and very pleased to add Israel to our global media rights footprint. The Gaming Channel and its experienced team are the perfect partner for our move into the Israeli market, and we look forward to a successful collaboration.”

Yoav Sochen, General Manager for Gaming Channel, said: “I am very excited to partner up with BLAST Premier. Connecting both professional players and esports enthusiasts to the Gaming Channel through top tier international leagues, operated and offered on live broadcast in Hebrew for the first time. I look forward to seeing what this partnership can do for the Israeli scene.”

The deal takes BLAST’s portfolio of media rights to over 40 linear and online partners internationally, meaning BLAST Premier is now available globally in 18 different languages and in over 150 TV territories.

BLAST Premier is a worldwide Counter-Strike tournament series that unites all major events, offers opportunities to all regions across the globe and crowns the world champions of CS:GO. Up to 32 teams will take part in the seven BLAST Premier events over the course of 2021 with a combined prize pool of $2,475,000 on the line. BLAST will be making its long-awaited return to arena events with fans later this year at Copenhagen’s iconic Royal Arena for the Fall Final. 

The recently launched 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual Series, a joint venture between Motorsport Games Inc.  — a leading racing game developer, publisher and esports ecosystem provider of official motorsport racing series throughout the world — and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (“ACO”) — the creators and organizers of the world-famous 24 Hours of Le Mans and promoter of the FIA World Endurance Championship of the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (the “FIA WEC”), announces today the full entry list for the 2021-22 Endurance Esports Championship.

The 38 team entries feature 177 driver names on the full-season roster list and include champions and prominent drivers from nearly all major motorsport disciplines, including Formula One, the WEC, INDYCAR, the International Motor Sports Association (“IMSA”), Formula 2 and 3, Formula E and Extreme E, GT World Challenge and more. Participating this season are open-wheel luminaries of motorsport, such as 2009 F1 Champion, Jenson Button, F2 racer, Jack Aitken, Formula E racer Sergio Sette Camara, current INDYCAR Championship points leader, Alex Palou and INDYCAR driver and 2019 INDYCAR Rookie of the Year, Felix Rosenqvist.

The Le Mans Virtual Series’ driver roster also contains some of the most exciting up and coming young professional drivers, including F2 and F3 stars Liam Lawson, Bent Viscaal, Victor Martins and Caio Collet, as well as female driver Beitske Visser, who races in the W Series and the WEC. The FIA WEC, 24 Hours of Le Mans and IMSA are represented by former champion Bruno Senna, plus former F1 stars Stoffel Vandoorne, Harry Tincknell, Will Stevens, Matt Campbell, Yifei Ye and many other prominent racers.

Demonstrating his racing versatility, Timmy Hansen – World Rallycross and Extreme E driver, will race alongside winners from Japan’s Super GT, the Super Formula championships and GT racers from all around the world. Rounding out the list of professional racing drivers is last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual winning line-up, who are reuniting for the Rebellion GPX Williams team to defend their title. Teams making up the rest of the grid include Team Fordzilla, Red Bull Racing Esports, Team Redline, Panis Racing, Team Project 1 and Team WRT, among others, plus championship and Le Mans-winning worldwide brands, such as Alpine, Ferrari, Porsche and BMW, just to name a few.

Joining this roster of esteemed professional racing drivers are elite competitors from the sim racing scene, including popular names such as Michi Hoyer, Bono Huis, Jan von der Heyde, Joshua Rogers and Kevin Siggy. There will be 98 sim drivers within the full 177 driver roster.

An overview of the driver roster construction and format is as follows:

• Teams must submit a full-season roster of 4 or 5 drivers.
• A minimum of 2 drivers must be FIA graded (or its equivalent).
• The remaining drivers are sim drivers.
• For each of the first 4 online rounds, teams will nominate 3 drivers from their full season roster 7 days before each race. Of these, one must be an FIA-graded driver (or its equivalent).
• For the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual finale – scheduled to be held January 15^th and 16^th, 2022 in Birmingham, UK at the 2022 Autosport International motorsport show – line-ups will increase to 4 drivers per entry with a minimum of 2 FIA-graded drivers (or its equivalent). An additional 20 entries are expected for the live, televised event, with some of the most well-known motorsport names in the world due to appear.

Given the ongoing calendar uncertainty in real world racing, there is provision within the regulations to allow for the replacement of FIA-graded drivers if the originally nominated drivers are not available.

The combination of top level names from these two racing worlds competing on classic tracks, culminating in the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual – the virtual equivalent to the world’s greatest sportscar event – promises to deliver exciting and highly competitive endurance events that are guaranteed to thrill esports enthusiasts globally.  For those same fans, running alongside the Le Mans Virtual Series will be the Le Mans Virtual Cup  – an esports series where anyone with rFactor 2 can compete and earn the opportunity to secure a spot on the grid for the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual.

Supporting this year’s Le Mans Virtual Series will be some of the world’s most high-profile brands, including: Thrustmaster as Official Hardware Partner, Rolex as Official Timepiece Partner, Total Energiesas Official Energy Partner, Goodyear as Official Tire Partner, LEGO® Technic as Official Engineering Partner and Algorand as Official Blockchain Partner.

About Le Mans Virtual Series

Le Mans Virtual Series is a global, elite esports series made up of 5 rounds which bring together endurance racing and sim racing’s top teams to compete on some of the world’s most famous racetracks. International FIA-licensed real-world drivers are teamed up with leading esports protagonists to take on endurance classics for a total prize fund of US$250,000, culminating in the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual which will take place live and televised at the Autosport Show International at the Birmingham, UK. The Le Mans Virtual Series is a joint venture between leading racing game developer, publisher and esports ecosystem provider of official motorsport racing series throughout the world, Motorsport Games, and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (“ACO”) – the creator and organizer of the world-famous 24 Hours of Le Mans and promoter of the FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC).

Round 1: 4 Hours of Monza, Italy                     September 25, 2021                           Online only

Round 2: 6 Hours of Spa, Belgium                    October 16, 2021                                 Online only

Round 3: 8 Hours of Nürburgring, Germany November 13, 2021                              Online only

Round 4: 6 Hours of Sebring, USA                    December 18, 2021                             Online only

Round 5: 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual             January 15/16, 2022                           ASI, Birmingham, UK

The reigning national champion Hemanth Kommu made his way into the Finals of 13th Esports World Championship after a brilliant performance in the Regional Qualifiers.

With a top-position finish in PES 2021 in the South Asia Region, Hemanth also became the first Indian to seal a spot in the Finals at the on-going edition of the Esports World Championships.

The Vijayawada resident, who is currently pursuing his Masters from IIT Guwahati, was up against the athletes from Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Maldives and Sri Lanka in his respective South Asian Region at the Regional Qualifiers which were held online owing to the on-going Covid-19 pandemic.

The 24-year-old Indian carried his winning form from the recent Nationals into this prestigious event and showed excellent display of strategic and skillful game. Hemanth registered convincing victories against his opponents before securing himself a berth in the World Championship Finals, which are scheduled to take place offline in Eilat, Israel from November 14-19.

“It’s a great feeling to represent India in the PES series, the game which I have loved playing since my childhood days. It’s sheer dedication and hard work resulted in getting the spot in the Finals of EWC’21 and it allowed me a chance to bring the laurels for the country. The right mentality and proper grind towards the game makes everything possible and a sure-shot path to get the success,” elated Hemant aka peshemak7 said after securing the Finals berth at the World Championships.

A five-member Team India CS:GO, comprising captain Ritesh Sarda, Shuvajyoti Chakraborty, Anshul Adardkar, Hrishikesh Shenoy and Harsh Jain, and Tekken 7 player Hitesh Khorwal will be seen in action in the Regional Qualifiers later as they will begin their quest for the place in the World Championship Finals on October 5.
The matches will be streamed live on the International Esports Federation’s official channels.

Esports Federation of India continued its partnership with Artsmith- Concepts & Visions which continues its support as the communication partner for the prestigious World Esports Championships.

New engagement designed to increase Luckbox player conversion

Award-winning betting platform Luckbox is pleased to announce a partnership with user onboarding solution Checkin.

Luckbox is a bespoke platform offering legal, real-money wagering on esports and sports and the engagement with Checkin is designed to increase player conversion.

“This partnership allows us to streamline the onboarding process for our customers, with the aim of increasing player conversion rates and as an important precursor to stepping up our marketing efforts,” said Real Luck Group Chief Executive Officer Thomas Rosander. “Luckbox is a proprietary platform built to cater to the demands of esports fans on desktop and mobile. The Checkin solution compliments our goal to deliver the best possible user experience, allowing players to sign up smoothly and begin enjoying our platform as quickly as possible.”

Stockholm-based Checkin Group (STO:CHECK) has revolutionized the outdated and overly complicated online processes businesses use for onboarding new users to receive products or enroll in services. Checkin, created by former senior product executives at the Swedish fintech pioneer, Klarna, replaces archaic frameworks (separately handling sign-ups, identifications, and logins) with one unified Software as a Service (SaaS) solution for user onboarding or check-in. In 2020, Checkin processed more than 18 million sessions from end-users in 165 countries. Online services that integrate the framework usually see double-digit percentage increase in user registrations, which is an important part of betting platforms, due to stringent regulatory requirements.

“We are thrilled that Luckbox uses the Checkin software and that we thereby also have entered the world of esports. The Luckbox team has impressed us and we believe they offer the go to platform for anyone interested in esports. It is a very promising vertical for our software given its current strong growth, but also future outlook”, comments Andreas Thim, deputy CEO at Checkin Group.