Facebook eSports Channels

Facebook continues to stock up on eSports content to directly compete against namely Google's YouTube and Amazon's Twitch.

11:58 10 September 2017

Facebook continues to stock up on eSports content to directly compete against leading digital video platforms that stream eSports tournaments, namely Google’s YouTube and Amazon’s Twitch.

 

On Thursday, it was announced that Hi-Rez Studios and the World eSports Association (WESA) have signed a deal with Facebook, making the giant social networking site the exclusive streaming home for all video content from their new eSports league, the Paladins Premier League. Hi-Rez, which was just launched last year, now has more than 15 million players worldwide.

 

Earlier this year, Facebook also signed a deal with global eSports company ESL to live-stream thousands of hours of video game tournaments per year while also adding an exclusive live-streaming deal for the Heroes of the Dorm eSports tournament.

 

Facebook eSports and gaming partnerships manager, Patrick Chapman, says there is plenty of potential to attract gaming and eSports fans from within Facebook's monthly user base of more than 2 billion people. "Some of them are passionate eSports fans now who tune in to watch content on YouTube or Twitch. But going forward, when they start to see new content showing up on a new platform where they spend as much as an hour a day anyway, I think that offers growth opportunities for developers and content creators."