TNL eSports Brand Tracker 001: Visa and SK Gaming
Visa Sponsors eSports Team SK Gaming (Photo: SK Gaming)
TNL Take: Visa kicks off 2017 by making a big investment in top German eSports team SK Gaming.
SK Gaming currently have teams in Counter-Strike, Hearthstone, World of Warcraft and Vainglory - but their CS team is the biggest draw sporting 2 of the worlds top players in Brazilians Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo and Marcelo "coldzera" David. SK Gaming is one of the favorites to win the current ELEAGUE Major.
It's great to see Visa make a big move like this considering their initial move into eSports was with Formula-E - which no one watches.
Visa Sponsors eSports Team SK Gaming (Photo: SK Gaming)
Not much was revealed about the overall partnership outside of an appearance on behalf of Visa at CES a few weeks ago with SK Gaming Counter-Strike Athletes Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo and Epitacio "TACO" de Melo - both of them combined have half a million Twitter followers.
There have been rumors of a price tag of "high six figures" for this partnership - I'd estimate that it was for ~$500,000.
Lara Balazs, Senior Vice President and Head of North American Marketing at Visa told [a]listdaily the following (emphasis mine):
“You have athletes that embody the brand, are digitally savvy, and they’re truly embodying entrepreneurship and taking it to the next level. They’re a terrific addition to our marketing.”
“We’re excited about the possibility of eSports given the interest by millennials and our target consumer"
I couldn't agree more Visa.