GumGum’s bid to streamline esports sponsorship

Esports Industry
April 25, 2019
Esports Staff

Revenues from sponsorship make up a huge part of the income for esports organisations. In an industry that is thought to hit global revenues of $1.65 billion by 2021, $1.4 billion of this is expected to come from brand investment. As a result, there is a huge amount of pressure on delivering a flawless integration of sponsorship into esports in a way that doesn’t harm the user experience.

This is where GumGum come in as the company have developed technology that can help brands and esports teams share a sponsorship management platform that can be directly integrated into a live streaming service. By using an artificial-intelligence powered measurement platform, GumGum will help to provide accurate real-time reports into things like the amount of concurrent viewers and impressions delivered for each sponsor.

In addition to this, esports teams will be able to configure the sponsorship messages in a way that doesn’t impact the live stream. GumGum state that their platform can easily be implemented in less than five minutes by using popular streaming software like XSplit and OBS so that teams and individuals can add, edit and remove sponsored content as and when they see fit.

GumGum have already been running a beta version of their platform with the North American League of Legends side, TeamSoloMid, and it has helped the esports organisation customise their sponsorship for specific dates. The tech company have also been working with esteemed esports teams and tournaments such as ESL, 100 Thieves and Dignitas, and as a result, it seems that GumGum are set to make a big impression in the development of the competitive gaming industry.

The GumGum Sports platform has already found plenty of success in the traditional sporting world. Thanks to their work with sports organisations and teams as far ranging as New York Mets, Phoenix Suns, Kanas City Chiefs, Middlesex County Cricket Club and the UFC, the GumGum company is now thought to be worth $100 million.

But due to the phenomenal growth of esports, GumGum’s moves into competitive gaming is a timely move. As a large proportion of the 194 million global fanbases of esports regularly watches live streaming content on services like Twitch and YouTube Gaming, it has become evident that the placement of any sponsorship messages is hugely important into successfully promoting a brand’s message.

Rather than interrupting a live stream with an advertisement, by using the GumGum platform, esports teams will get to enjoy much more control over how the message is displayed and therefore run less risk of affecting the user experience.

Whether it’s customising the way a sponsored graphic is overlaid, or even just scheduling when certain banners appear, it’s hoped that the overall integration of sponsorship and live streaming will be much less jarring. And with the potential to generate more revenues for any potential sponsors, it is clear that GumGum’s platform could bring many more brands into the lucrative world of esports.

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