YouTube Gets Streaming Rights to Major Esports Leagues
- Google’s Activision deal nabs Overwatch from Amazon’s Twitch
- Google will also provide cloud services to Activision
Gamers compete during the Overwatch League Grand Finals at Barclay Center in New York on July 27, 2018.
Photographer: Christopher Lee/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
YouTube secured the exclusive rights to broadcast some of the biggest esports leagues, giving Google a boost in its efforts to push into the lucrative world of video games.
The deal, signed between Alphabet Inc.’s Google and video game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc., gives YouTube the rights to broadcast the new Call of Duty League and the already-popular Overwatch League, which was broadcast on Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch for the past two years at a reported cost of $90 million. As part of the agreement, Google will provide cloud infrastructure for Activision’s online games. Financial terms of the multiyear deal were not disclosed.