Several major developments in the esports space occurred last week, as G2 Esports appointed Alban Dechelotte as its new General Manager whilst Tribe Gaming gained a new partner and ESL entered Israel.
According to G2, Dechelotte played a key role in organising the partnerships for the LEC, having held responsibility for incorporating a significant number of brands into the tournament including KitKat and Kia.
Prior to joining the company, Dechelotte was Head of Partnerships and Business Development EMEA at Riot Games, and has held roles at Coca-Cola, Havas Sports and Entertainment France.
“Personally I think this is a huge move,” said Tom Daniels, Sub-Editor at Esports Insider and ESI Digest presenter. “I think that Dechelotte has done an absolutely unbelievable job at Riot Games, and seeing already the partnerships that G2 have managed to secure, I’m really wondering about where this organisation can go and what kinds of integrations and partnerships they can do.
“They have arguably one of the biggest and one of the best partnership teams in terms of a whole organisation, especially in Europe, and I think it’s very interesting to see Dechelotte join this already stacked roster of backroom staff, and I’m really excited for the commercial future of G2 Esports.”
In addition to appointing Dechelotte, G2 has also confirmed that Peter Moocher, the current Chief Operating Officer, will transition into the role of Observer of the Board.
Meanwhile, Tribe Gaming has secured a partnership with Spurs Sports and Entertainment (SS&E), the parent company of the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
The deal will see the new partners cooperate on cross-content collaborations, co-branded marketing efforts, talent and audience crossover and shared strategic expertise, whilst Tribe will also gain investment from the sports company although financial details have not been released.
Daniels remarked: “Just from this announcement we obviously don’t know what kind of other activations will come in terms of what they have planned, but initially I think this looks very positive for Tribe Gaming.
“Gaining this investment not only highlights the strengths that Tribe Gaming has in terms of building its brand, but also the strength of mobile esports and growth of mobile esports in the west.”
Lastly, ESL has secured a foothold in the Israeli market by partnering with The Gaming Channel, granting the latter the media rights to broadcast select ESL Pro Tour CS:GO tournaments and ESL Mobile content in Hebrew.
“I do feel that this is another significant deal, because we’re seeing a lot more language specific content starting to be created,” Daniels commented.
“As esports starts becoming more popular, I do think we are going to see more diversification in terms of the content and the language of the content that will be spoken, because we’ve got more fans from different nations.”
Source – Esports Insider YouTube Channel
