Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company locked in a multi-year extension to continue to sponsor the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic. As part of the deal, ESPN will continue to retain the exclusive media rights the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic and the College Football Playoff with Goodyear to providing aerial coverage from their blimp to ESPN for the broadcasts. In addition, Goodyear will continue to be an Official Sponsor of the College Football Playoff.
Nominations are officially open for the fifth year of Kraft Hockeyville USA as hockey communities look for an opportunity to host an NHL Pre-Season Game, receive up to $150,000 in rink upgrades from Kraft Heinz and $10,000 worth of hockey equipment through the NHLPA Goals & Dreams program, in addition to the coveted title of Kraft Hockeyville USA 2019. Program ambassador Jeremy Roenick, NHL veteran and current NHL analyst for NBC Sports, returns as the spokesperson.
UFC announced a new marketing partnership with PokerStars, which now becomes UFC’s first-ever ‘Official Poker Partner’, creating a new sponsorship category. “We’re excited that PokerStars has joined our roster of global partners and has helped us create a new sponsorship category for our final event of 2018,” said Paul Asencio, UFC Senior Vice President, Global Partnerships. “This agreement lays the foundation to work together with PokerStars in the future to grow our respective customer bases in key markets.”
UFC Fight Pass announced that it will double its live event schedule in 2019, showcasing more than 200 exclusive events featuring promotions from around the world. In all, more than 1,000 hours of live and exclusive combat sports programming will run in 2019, offering mixed martial arts, boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and more. The preliminary 2019 programming schedule calls for Fight Pass to live stream fights from a minimum of 20 combat sports promotions, in addition to the new betting show On the Line, designed to help educate fight fans about placing wagers on UFC bouts, featuring analysis from professional bettors and oddsmakers.
NBC Sports Digital reports that it wrapped up its best year ever in 2018, anchored by Super Bowl LII, the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, and Spanish-language coverage of the FIFA World Cup. The record year is highlighted by 6.5 billion minutes of consumption for more than 90,000 hours of streaming coverage across more than 30,000 events, all powered by NBC Sports’ Playmaker Media. The year also set new streaming records for Sunday Night Football, the Stanley Cup Final, the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Premier League, Notre Dame Football, the Triple Crown, and the NASCAR Cup Series, as well as regional streaming records for MLB, NBA, and NHL.
Nitro Circus reports that global livestreams from November’s Nitro World Games Scootfest and December’s Scooter Best Trick earned 16 million views on Facebook Watch while “Nitro Circus: Throwdown,” featuring live nightly contests from the You Got This arena tour, scored an additional five million. All told, combined views of Nitro Circus and Nitro World Games Facebook content in 2018 have exceeded 50 million to date.
World Showdown of Esports took center stage over the holidays, delivering both WSOE2, featuring Hearthstone and running Dec. 20-21, and WSOE3, with Fortnite on Dec. 30. WSOE3 topped the company’s internal expectations, notching an average of 160,025 viewers, according to Esports Charts, and topping 1.5 million total views for the contest, with over a million hours watched. Meanwhile, the all-female Hearthstone event saw 253,000 hours watched with over 708,000 total views.
Bandai Namco is shifting esports oversight to Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada who will now run the company’s esports strategy team and focus on growing the esports community for Tekken 7, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and Soulcalibur VI. “We at Bandai Namco are committed to expand the horizons of both tournament and community scenes of these 3 franchises,” said Harada in a statement on TwitLonger. “We are already planning to have as many official tournaments as possible for next year—while continue supporting tournaments held by the community. Furthermore, we are dedicated to figure out ways where we can assist tournaments and community activities in the future.”
The Professional Fighters League is forging an alliance in esports, partnering with Team Liquid for a partnership that will see top Team Liquid pros become PFL Ambassadors and part of the PFL MMA experience. The deal sees select Team Liquid top players and personalities attend PFL Fights and share their experiences as part of the PFL fan community with their own fans and followers. “At Team Liquid, we seek out innovative partnerships that allow us to explore new spaces” said Team Liquid founder and co-CEO Victor Goossens, “I fell in love with MMA 15 years ago when I was a pro Starcraft player living in Seoul – I see a lot of the same core values between our organizations with a focus on entertainment, competitive sports format and athlete–first culture. This partnership will allow Team Liquid pros and PFL top athletes to explore different ways to create entertainment and promotions for both fan bases.”
WorldGaming will power the Winnipeg Jets NHL 19 Tournament, which opens for registration on Jan. 3. The tournament will test the ‘Chel skills of players ages 14 and up from across North America who will compete for over $10,000 in cash and additional prizes throughout a multi-round tournament of online qualifiers taking place between Jan. 19 and Feb. 10, 2019. The grand final will take place Feb. 18, at Bell MTS Place when the top player from each of the Xbox One and Playstation 4 platforms will compete to be crowned the official Winnipeg Jets NHL 19 Champion.
ONE Championship named Hideyuki ‘Andy’ Hata as President of ONE Championship, Japan where he will be responsible for overseeing operations in Japan, driving development and growth across all key metrics. Hata had been serving as President of Nielsen Sports, North Asia, where he is responsible for all of Nielsen Sports’ business activities in Japan, South Korea, and Mainland China.
Oklahoma/Kansas on ESPN2 at 9p.
