The eSports have a very interesting present. And increasingly a better future. This is how many athletes understand it. This is the case, for example, of Gerard Piqué. The Barcelona’ star, associated with Konami, presented its own league in November: eFootball.Pro. Now he is followed in this adventure by his ex-partner Javier Mascherano. Although 'El Jefecito' does it in another project. The Argentine has been linked to the Latin American sports agency eSports Planet.
Next week, in Buenos Aires, the argentine football Superliga will make officiall the agreement by which it outsources the management of its future electronic sports platforms to Mascherano's company. eSports are the gateway to millennials, since 81% of its audience is between 18 and 34 years old. That's why the Superliga Argentina de Fútbol (SAF) decided to move forward in capturing this young audience by implementing a virtual league where each club will have its eSports team that can represent it.
eSports Planet will be responsible for the development of this competition that would be divided into three categories, perhaps separated by age, region and distance (this is still under analysis), and with 26 teams in each of them. The approval of the format and supervision of the tournaments will always remain in the hands of the Superliga presiding by Mariano Elizondo.
Precisely on Wednesday afternoon, the head of the SAF signed an agreement with the prestigious Austrian firm Red Bull with the aim of working together the development of eSports, games that every day add more followers to that platform. The agreement was signed for one year with the option to another one. In this way, Red Bull will not only be the main partner of the eSports actions developed by the Superliga, but will also participate in other activations. On the side of the Austrian company, the General Manager, Emanuel Cheszes, was present.
"For us it is a great joy to join this project of the Argentine Football Super League.We chose very rigorously with whom we associate and this occasion was not the exception. The segment to which we aim with our activations has many coincidences with what the SAF wants develop in the field of eSports," said Cheszes.
Mariano Elizondo highlighted the confidence that this firm transmits to him, with a company of the prestige of Red Bull: "We are very grateful that they have trusted us, this agreement gives us a huge confidence in our products. We have been projecting and working on this field for a while, and in the coming days we are going to communicate more news in the eSports area, and we are very happy with the arrival of Red Bull."
The idea is that the finals can be carried out in some stadium and with public as its happens in the rest of the world with other international electronic games competitions. The entry of Javier Mascherano in this sector is not casual. The world of sports and many international athletes have turned over the last few months to this kind of content that, according to the consultancy Deloitte, moves only in the United States about 500 million dollars.
"I am very aware of the importance of eSports content in Europe, America and the APAC regions, but Latin America is the region that should grow. I am quite sure of our possibilities as an agency," Mascherano said last March when he officially announced his landing as an investor in the eSports Planet company, which advises organizations to reach their target audience, as well as the creation of amateur tournaments to help the growth of young promises and serve as a bridge to tournaments and professional clubs.
"We are very proud and happy to join forces with Javier with the objective of developing eSports in Latin America. It will be very important. It will help us to capture the attention of people in the development of our company and the eSports soccer tournaments," acknowledges Robert Borrego, CEO of eSports Planet. The agency is based in Argentina and wants to expand throughout Latin America, citing that it is the "region with more growth potential" in terms of electronic sports, an activity that means the transformation of video games into a sport with spectators and played by professionals.
Source: Exclusive GMB
