Steve Ballmer isn’t the only tech CEO with a major interest in a competitive sports franchise anymore.
Thanks to a new acquisition, Jeff Bezos now has a stake in two of the leading eSports teams.
Twitch announced today that it has acquired GoodGame, a talent and content agency that manages ad deals and brands for people who create content around competitive video gaming, better known as eSports. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The game streaming company, which was acquired by Amazon earlier this year, highlighted GoodGame’s success at drawing high-profile advertisers into funding opportunities with eSports content creators and teams. Twitch praised GoodGame’s ability to offer “an arsenal of fresh, non-traditional engagement methods uniquely suited to the ever-evolving digital media audience.”
In addition to the advertising work, GoodGame also supports Evil Geniuses and Alliance, two of the leading eSports teams with squads that compete in games like “Counter-Strike” and “Starcraft 2.” The company even runs its own tournaments. Unsurprisingly, all of the players supported by GoodGame who stream their games live on the internet do so through Twitch.
GoodGame’s founder and CEO Alex Garfield said in a letter posted to his company’s website that he wanted to take Twitch up on the acquisition because he thinks that the two have aligned interests, and Twitch has the best interest of eSports at heart. Plus, the acquisition deal will allow GoodGame to operate without having to worry about the day to day issues of running a business.
“I believe in Twitch – I really do,” Garfield wrote. ”They’re great at what they do, they understand esports, and they genuinely care about making sure the community grows in the right way. To use an industry meme: they get it.”
This is a very significant move for both companies. GoodGame plays a significant role in the burgeoning eSports industry, and Twitch is looking for ways to expand its monetization opportunities. Plus, it puts the streaming company in a position to have more influence over the direction of eSports as an industry through the teams that GoodGame owns.
