Irvine-based Esportz Network says Orange County is the epicenter for California’s gamers.
“Within a 65-mile radius, we have counted no less than 400 companies that are directly or indirectly involved in esports,” said Esportz chairman and CEO Mark Thimmig.
The company, a media and marketing firm geared toward gamers, has a new distribution agreement with Reuters to help prove its point.
Esportz reached an agreement with Reuters to offer the latest in-depth gamer-centric text, audio, and video packages, the companies announced late last month.
“They’re looking upon us to be first in sharing more gamer and fan-based news than they’ve had heretofore,” Thimmig told the Business Journal at the time the deal was struck. “It’s a big deal.”
Founded in January, the network works with more than 50 professional freelance reporters and will be going up to 100 by the end of the year.
Its role in the gamer world is a notable one, Thimmig said.
“We are the largest esports reporting news organization in the world,” he said.
Esports generally refers to competitive tournaments of video games, increasingly among professional gamers.
“We’ll be supplying them with written content, photography, video and podcasting,” said Thimmig, a longtime OC marketing, PR, and branding entrepreneur.
News Hub
Through Reuters Connect, Reuters news agency customers will now have access to Esportz Network’s professional coverage aimed at helping esports fans and competitors gain in-depth analysis of professional gameplay.
Regular in-studio audio and video updates and interviews covering esports game development, tournaments, scores, and industry drama will also be provided.
Esportz Network content will also become a regular feature on “Keeping Score,” Reuters’ own sports business podcast.
Thimmig declined to provide any revenue figures, but said “we see substantial growth” for the network.
“More and more money is coming into esports, whether it’s sponsors or people investing in teams and players and tournaments,” he said. “There will be a lot of things to report on that are interesting to the fans.”
The company is slated to construct a state-of-the-art broadcast studio to expand its local base of operations, with completion targeting the end of the first quarter of 2020, Esportz said.
Expect more related businesses to crop up locally, he said.
“We see Orange County as being in the epicenter of the esports industry here in California,” Thimmig said.
That includes building games and equipment, as well as technology, noting that gaming giant Blizzard Entertainment, OC’s largest software company by employee count, is also in Irvine.
Content Key
The range of programming the firm will provide Reuters, featuring on-air talent, will include global esports event coverage, industry insiders’ top stories, talk shows with interviews of gamers, teams, creators, investors, industry executives, and reality shows.
“Partnering with Esportz Network allows us to expand our offering to include even more content for the most hardcore gamers and esports fans,” said Rob Schack, vice president, Reuters Sports in announcing the agreement.
