Twitter steps up esports commitment with ESL, DreamHack deals

Social media platform Twitter has moved to strengthen its position within the esports market by agreeing streaming partnerships with the ESL and DreamHack organisations.

The partnership with ESL kicks off tomorrow (Saturday) with coverage of the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice event in Poland, which will feature tournaments in the CounterStrike: Global Offensive and StarCraft II games.

All Intel Extreme Masters and ESL One tournaments will be streamed live this year via Twitter as part of the agreement.

More than 16 events, including the DreamHack circuits as well as original ESL content, will be available throughout 2017.

Original ESL content will include a weekly 30-minute show featuring highlights and behind-the-scenes footage. In total, around 1,500 hours of content will be streamed throughout the year.

Streams will be available for free around the world at esl.twitter.com, iem.twitter.com and dreamhack.twitter.com, and via Apple TV, Xbox One, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV devices.

The Variety website said Twitter esports content will include advertising packages with television-style ad breaks as well as highlights and recap clips that advertisers can sponsor and promote on Twitter. Ad revenue will be split with ESL and DreamHack.

Twitter’s chief operating officer, Anthony Noto, said: “Esports is growing at a rapid pace and we see this collaboration as a way to tap into the engaged audience of gamers that are already using Twitter as a primary source of content.”

Last July, Twitter streamed live coverage of the ELeague championship, which saw competitors go head to head in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.