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Activision Blizzard president says Riot Games and MLBAM’s $50 million partnership was ‘a very important milestone for esports’

Zorine Te
Bobby Kotick called the Riot Games and MLBAM deal an “important milestone” for esports. (Getty Images)
Bobby Kotick called the Riot Games and MLBAM deal an “important milestone” for esports. (Getty Images)

Activision Blizzard president and CEO Bobby Kotick has shared his thoughts on Riot Games’ and MLB Advanced Media’s broadcast partnership, a deal that is worth $50 million on average and will run through to the 2023 season.

Kotick made his comments during Activision Blizzard’s Q4 earnings call. His statement was in response to a question about how Activision Blizzard perceived the value of its esports properties in light of Riot Games and MLB Advanced Media’s recent partnership.

“I actually think it was a very important milestone for esports,” Kotick said. “It’s a large-scale broadcast commitment and I think it really demonstrates how valuable our content can be as spectator content.”

“When we look what the opportunity is for professionally produced content, and Mike pointed out, city-based competition around the world, which there really isn’t an analogue to, we think that if you look at where advertisers want to spend their capital, where sponsors want to spend their capital, it is very difficult to reach 18-35 year old males today, and this programming is incredibly compelling. People are watching it largely as user-generated content today, but we think that the professionally produced content will have tremendous value.”

“We think this is going to be a big area of opportunity to strengthen our franchises, but probably most importantly to really celebrate our players. If you think about the investment our players make, the time, the commitment, there’s a great opportunity for us to showcase and celebrate our professional players. And we think there’s going to be large audiences and large numbers of advertisers willing to support those efforts.”

His statement references Blizzard’s Overwatch League, which will feature a location-based leagu, with teams tied to specific cities. Furthermore, his statement indicates that Activision Blizzard sees value in professionally produced content, and that the opportunities from advertisers and the size of the audience will be enough to support an expansion into this.

Blizzard president Mike Morhaime also spoke on the earnings call, saying that the company was identifying team owners for its Overwatch League “soon.”