Start of the Overwatch League: Twitch Buys Streaming Rights

What Blizzard tackles is successful – so far

The expectations of the success of the OWL Blizzard fueled it itself: They built their own arena in the legendary Burbank Studios in Los Angeles. Where Johnny Carson's Tonight Show was previously recorded, a high-tech e-sports arena with space for 450 spectators was built. The entire first season will be played here and broadcast worldwide. Record prices were charged to take part in the Overwatch League. At least $20 million per team was due for a starting place. And that even though as an organizer you have little experience and the success of the league is anything but certain.

Last but not least, the successful game manufacturer is undertaking a small revolution in the e-sports scene itself. Blizzard relies on a high level of professionalism, the players receive health insurance and fixed salaries. Above all, they try to transfer the local patriotism that is so important in classic sports leagues to electronic competitions. Until now, e-sports teams have mostly run under the banner of their sponsors or their own brands (Ninjas in Pajamas, Alternate, Samsung, Fanatic, etc.). The OWL teams, on the other hand, represent global cities and emphasize international and regional competition. This is a novelty in e-sports, which has often brought together different nationalities in the teams.

We hope that these local teams will have home games in a few years. There are millions of children in the world who would love to attend an e-sports tournament and buy merchandise but are unable to due to travel costs. The localized teams will generate a lot of local revenue. Nate Nanzer, Blizzard esports director

Teams like Boston Uprising, Dallas Fuel and the Los Angeles Gladiators meet in the new league. This should make the e-sports scene more interesting and accessible, especially for new viewers. Tying teams to regions also allows individual encounters to be embedded in traditional rivalries, such as between Boston and New York in baseball or basketball. However, it remains to be seen whether die-hard e-sports fans who are used to teams independent of regions and nations will follow this reference to established sports. Teams like London Spitfire and Seoul Dynasty provide international flair in the predominantly American starting field - the South Koreans are the bookmakers' favorites. German teams are not taking part in the first season, probably due to the extremely high entry fee.

E-sports are becoming more important for bookmakers

Blizzard is following its usual strategy with these rather profound changes to the existing conditions in e-sports. The company is known for not simply entering existing markets, but at the same time innovating and thereby conquering them. Examples of this include the revolution in online role-playing games with World of Warcraft, the reinvention of digital card games with Hearthstone and the enormously successful first attempt in the shooter genre with Overwatch, which shook up the market with references to other genres.

Given this record, it would hardly be surprising that they would also succeed in entering the league business. An end to the boom in e-sports is unlikely anyway. Games are increasingly being developed with their suitability in the field in mind. The number of viewers has been increasing continuously for years. This means that the field is becoming increasingly important for bookmakers. Because the generation of computer game enthusiasts is also fond of gambling. Skin gambling sites show this as well as the appearance of companies like Betway as team and league sponsors. The big bookmakers such as bet365 and SkyBet have long recognized the trend and offer extensive betting markets for the sector, of course also for the OWL.

Start of the Overwatch League: Twitch buys streaming rights for 90 million dollars