Global online bookmaker Betway has signed a new six-figure front-of-shirt deal with French-Chinese esports team PSG.LGD.
Under the deal, Betway will have branding on the team’s jerseys and jackets, and will also have access to the players to produce exclusive content and cross-promote on social media.
PSG.LGD is a professional Dota 2 (Defence of the Ancients 2) team. It was formed in April 2018 from a merger of Chinese esports organisation LGD Gaming and the esports arm of French football club Paris Saint-Germain.
PSG Esports was formed in 2016 and has several professional teams competing across different games.
The deal builds on Betway’s strong presence in esports sponsorship, spanning both team and event partnerships.
At present, Betway is a sponsor of the Dota 2 outfits at Swedish esports team Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) and Chinese esports team Invictus Gaming. It also sponsors the CS:GO (Counter Strike: Global Offensive) outfits at NiP, MiBR (Made in Brazil) and BIG (Berlin International Gaming).
Betway is also a current partner of the ESL Pro League, the Intel Extreme Masters, ESL One and the BLAST Pro Series – all of which feature Dota 2 competitions.
The Betway deal means PSG.LGD is now one of only a few esports team to have signed a six-figure front-of-shirt deal.
In June last year, German esports team SK Gaming signed a high six-figure shirt deal with German telco T-Mobile.
SK Gaming’s record was then broken by UK-based Fnatic, which in January this year announced its first ever front-of-shirt deal with Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus.
As reported by SportBusiness Sponsorship, the deal is understood be worth more than $1m (€0.88m) over the one-year contract. In financial terms, it remains the biggest esports front-of-shirt deal ever signed.
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