Meanwhile, publishers were quick to defend business practices, with Scott J. Witlin of the law firm of Barnes & Thornburg LLP – which represents a coalition of Interactive Video Game Publishing Companies – stating that they had been negotiating in good faith and noting that "We consider the Union’s threatened labor action to call a strike precipitous, unnecessary and an action that will only harm their membership. SAG-AFTRA represents performers in less than 25% of the video games on the market.  Any strike would not only deny SAG-AFTRA’s membership work, but this would also give their competitors, who do not engage union talent, a leg up while any strike would be in place.”

Meanwhile, the actual FIFA has its own plans in the eSports space, announcing an an expansion into eSports. In a report detailing its strategy for growing in the future, the organization noted that “FIFA will increase its role in the exploding eSports market, which in 2015 generated revenues of almost USD 1 billion, and work to capture a greater share of that market by better leveraging the popularity of the FIFA video game and the FIFA Interactive World Cup. The administration will establish a dedicated team to explore opportunities and develop a business strategy that ensures FIFA is responsive to current trends and able to quickly adapt to developing trends in the eSports industry.”

Mobile eSports company Skillz announced that it has now broken the $50 million threshold in eSports prizes since launching in 2012. The company states that it has now accounted for over 30% of all eSports prizes in 2016, compared to 21% in 2015 and just 8.4% in 2014. Overall, more than 10 million players are leveraging the platform, with a projection of more than 70 million tournaments set to take place this year. "More than 2.1 billion people play mobile games daily, making mobile the most popular gaming platform in history," said Andrew Paradise, founder and CEO of Skillz. "Despite such a large market opportunity, it wasn’t possible for game developers to easily implement fun, interactive and rewarding competition before Skillz. We’re dedicated to building the multiplayer social fabric that enables mobile eSports for everyone."

The FIA Formula E Championship served up more details for its upcoming virtual race in Las Vegas. The event, which will take place during CES in January, will see all 20 Formula E drivers test their skills on a specially designed track that incorporates the Las Vegas Strip for the opportunity to win a share of $1 million. 10 fans will be able to take part in the event through the Road to Vegas Challenge. The Las Vegas eRace will take place at the Venetian Hotel as part of Sports Business Innovation presented by Turner Sports from Jan. 5-7. Top prize is $200,000.

A year after FanDuel purchased eSports fantasy site AlphaDraft, the site will shut its doors. AlphaDraft sent users an email stating that it will stop offering paid fantasy contests starting tomorrow after the League of Legends World Championship semifinal wraps up.

After a notice from the Washington State Gambling Commission that accused Valve of taking part in online gambling activities on its Steam platform, the company fired back .“Outside of Steam and, we believe, outside of the United States, certain websites offer gambling propositions,” said Valve legal counsel Liam Lavery. “Valve has no business relationship with such gambling sites, and indeed they can come into existence, operate, and go out of existence without Valve’s knowledge.”

Overwatch’s eSports tally in under a year? Over $1 million according to esportsearnings.com. The title broke the mark with, APAC Premier’s $192,000 prize-pool bumping the game’s tournament earnings to $1.1 million. Team leading the pack in earnings… Rogue at $147,059.92, followed by Misfits at $116,143.72 and Team EnVyUs at $82,808.67.

ELeague announced its talent lineup for the second season of its CS:GO competition on Oct., 21. Coming back to the show will be casters James Bardolph, Daniel Kapadia, Anders Blume and Auguste Massonnat. On board as analysts will be Duncan Shields, Jason O’Toole, Richard Lewis and Scott Smith. Reporting will be Rachel Quirico and Kate Yeager.

RIP to the world’s longest-running eSports league. The Korean eSports Association announced the end of the StarCraft ProLeague on Facebook, noting that "the drop in the number of ProLeague teams and players, difficulty securing league sponsors, and match fixing issues have made it challenging to maintain ProLeague."

NYCFC became the North American soccer club to dabble in eSports, launching a Best in the City Challenge. The tournament sees the club partner with Players’ Lounge for an online FIFA 17 tournament that will wrap up when the team faces the Columbus Crew on Oct. 23 at the Yankee Stadium fan zone.

Final days to enter our social media Leaderboard. Have your campaigns and work recognized with the best in the business with last year’s big winners including Buffalo Wild Wings, ESPN/Applebee’s; FedEx/EA Sports; Golf Channel, the Mountain West Conference, the NBA, NHL, PGA Tour, Showtime Sports, Turner Sports, US Soccer and WWE. Don’t miss you chance to be recognized and get your entry in now by clicking here.

After being purchased by the Philadelphia 76ers, Team Dignitas now has a new CEO with the appointment of former game developer Jonathan Kemp. Dignitas Chairman Greg Richardson told ESPN that “We obviously have big ambitions, relative to having a championship caliber team for every game we compete in. We also want to build an exciting business that can give back to the fans real value across every aspect of the business. So as we stepped back and looked at everything that had to get done, both with the team building and the business operations, we clearly needed a world-class CEO to make that happen.”

FACEIT is opening the doors to Hi-Rez Studios’ Smite, announcing a partnership that launches the MOBA game on the platform this month. SMITE will initially be supported on PC and Xbox One with competitions set to include a slate of daily and weekly competitions. “The team has been working hard during the open beta to gather community feedback and improve the game integration. We are excited to be finally able to release the game on our platform to the whole community and are eager to work with Hi-Rez over the next year to grow their competitive community,” said Niccolo Maisto, CEO of FACEIT.

The Esports Championship Series will see its finals take place from Dec. 9-11, with the last two days of the tournament finals hosted at Anaheim Arena in California to mark the largest ever CS:GO event in SoCal. The top four qualifying teams from both North America and Europe will be vying for a prize pool of $750,000 on top of participation fees with the final streamed live on FACEIT’s official Twitch channel.

Coca-Cola is taking synergy to a new level, and will be hosting watch parties with its theater partners for the 2016 League of Legends World Championship. This year will see hundreds of locations host fans of the title, for a $20 admission and the first 100 fans to arrive receiving limited edition Coca-Cola cups and thunder sticks. Attendees will also have a chance to win prizes, including RP codes and the Grand Prize — a custom edition Coke Esports PC and an Acer Predator XB1 24” Gaming Monitor. Locations hosting the event can be found at the Coke Esports’ website.

Sam Barkaway announced plans to launch a new agency designed to match brands with influential YouTuber talent in a move to target the gaming, eSports and tech industries. The agency, called uChannel Management, will look to “give brands a relationship with some of today’s biggest influencers, in addition to offering consultation on how best to use YouTube and other emerging platforms like Snapchat.” Company rosters will includes YouTubers with a combined audience of some five million games and tech consumers.

GameCo appointed Richmond Management Group as its licensing consultant. In this role, RMG will work with third party IP owners to acquire brand rights for GameCo to develop video games for its skill-based video game gambling machines. “RMG is thrilled to be a part of such a pioneering and revolutionary company that will bring a new generation of gamers to the casino floor. We are excited to deliver some of the world’s most loved video games and entertainment properties to create an entirely new experience for fans and casino-goers,” said Jennifer Richmond, Managing Director of RMG.

YouTube Red and Dan Harmon’s Starburns Industries are launching a new scripted comedy series surrounding the world of eSports via a partnership with Game Grumps. The half-hour show features YouTube stars Dan Avidan and Arin Hanson and “follows a newly formed team of eSports players trying to make it to the top in the cutthroat world of competitive gaming.” The series debuts in 2017. “Video games are wildly popular on YouTube and we’re thrilled to bring fans this comedy about the world of competitive gaming,” said Susanne Daniels, Global Head of Original Content, YouTube. “Starburns Industries and Game Grumps are combining two things their audiences’ love  comedy and video games. It will be fun to watch how these characters comically deal with their ‘underdog’ status while still trying to win big.”

The launch of Twitch Prime seems to be providing dividends, according to Superdata, with viewership on the site rising 13% in the first 9 days.

Mobile game developers looking for long-term success need to be ready to evolve quickly after launch, according to a new report from Nielsen. The company reports that popular games often have difficulties maintaining success in the $36.6 billion mobile gaming industry because developers did not keep up with the demand for new content, which sees demand for new levels, items, etc. start to rise just a few weeks after launch. “In the majority of cases, new content demand among gamers reached a peak three-to-five weeks after a new title launched,” the report states. “This plateau usually occurs when early adopters run out of content to enjoy or grow fatigued with the gameplay still available.”

Another new platform for mobile stalwart Candy Crush. CBS, Lionsgate and King announced that the game would be adapted to an hour-long game show that would see contestants maneuver around interactive game boards. Matt Kunitz serves as exec producer. "The Candy Crush franchise lends itself perfectly to the kind of larger-than-life, physical game shows that I love to produce and CBS is the perfect home for it," Kunitz said. "As a Candy Crush Saga player myself, I am excited to amp up the action and visuals in our huge Candy Crush Arena."

Tencent’s consortium to acquire mobile heavyweight Supercell has not raised $850 million, according to the company. Cash was raised by issuing new consortium shares to a handful of investors including Chinese investment companies CITIC Capital, Hundreds Capital, and AVIC Capital, granting them a 50% percent stake in the consortium.

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: In Overwatch, what country do Junkrat and Roadhog hail from? Answer: Australia. Kudos: Julie Reuther/Australia; Ray Highes-Food Network/NY; Danny Araque/NY; Connor Berlin-Carat/Detroit; Jordan Cruz-Roku Inc/LA; Guy Cacciarelli-National Cinemedia/LA; Elena Chavira-OMD/LA; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union/Burbank; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA.

Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cynopsis | eSports @VegasandVine
10.20.16

Roberta Caploe: Publisher @robertacaploe
Diane K Schwartz: Senior Vice President, Media Communications Group

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