OVO signs eSports broadcast deal for five years

OVO isn’t mucking around when it comes to being a player in the mobile content space. Having signed up various sports for mobile and online broadcasting they’ve just signed their longest ever rights deal with a five year agreement with the Australians eSports League (AEL).

“Esports is the future of sport, and traditional sport broadcasters who ignore that are in immediate danger of becoming irrelevant to kids and millennials,” according to OVO CEO Matt Jones.

In just the first year there will be more than 140 hours of content produced and broadcast by OVO and they’re hoping to reach one million aussies in the first year.

“It was inevitable that OVO would move into the esports space,” Matt said. “We’re about creating a home for unique content for fans of specific sports and entertainment, and esports has one of the fastest-growing fan bases in the world.

“There are three key reasons why AEL is a great fit for OVO. One, esports has a massive fan base but isn’t covered or even understood by traditional broadcasters. Two, it’s viewers are also participants, who are tuning in religiously not only for entertainment, but also to learn how to improve their own performance. And three, with the AEL University Cup, we are supporting the grass roots who will go on to represent Australia internationally.

Executive Producer and co-founder of AEL Darren Kwan is not new to eSports, having worked in the industry for more than a decade welcomed the long term deal with OVO “Our experience working with the likes of SBS Viceland and Fox Sports over the past few years has given AEL fantastic grounding on how to produce top-quality content for sports and lifestyle broadcasting. In setting up this league however, we knew that our long-term broadcast partner needed to live and breathe mobile.

“For our fans, mobile is their first screen. OVO has built its entire business around mobile broadcasting and understands how to excite and attract fans of the sport and entertainment it supports through OVOPlay.

“We were also very excited at the prospect of being able to make AEL content available data-free. Our primary audience values their data allowance more than they do their weekly food budget; if they’re with OVO, our channel can be always-on without them having to spend a kilobyte.

“Even from our first conversation with OVO, it was clear they could see the potential of what we’re trying to achieve with AEL. People who are new to esports frequently struggle to get their heads around the idea. OVO on the other hand, which has a culture of actively looking for popular sports that are underrepresented in traditional media, was already actively searching for a competition like ours.