Paris – Reed MIDEM announces the launch of Esports BAR, the first-of-its-kind networking event dedicated to bringing together electronic sports professionals and commercial partners. Its goal is to facilitate relationships between mainstream investors and “esports” businesses on a global scale.
The inaugural Esports BAR will take place in Cannes in February next year. The Esports BAR – short for Esports Business Arena – will ensure successful relationship development between non-endemic and endemic brands, media, esports teams, professional leagues, game publishers, advertising agencies and more.
Esports has attracted significant commercial attention in the past year, thanks in part to its massive reach and revenue potential. The esports industry currently enjoys over 115 million unique viewers worldwide, with revenues expected to reach $1BN by 2019, according to Newzoo. More than 40 mainstream brands, including Coca-Cola, Red Bull, Gillette, Turner and ESPN, have already entered this competitive space, which is currently insulated from much non-endemic advertising. Yet existing esports conferences remain either industry or education-focused, with little or no focus on forging successful cross-sector business partnerships.
The esports networking wishlist, all in one place for its inaugural event in Cannes, France, the Esports BAR will include 100+ curated attendees, 72 hours of networking and more than 2,000 one-to-one meetings with top company executives, making it an enormous potential lever for the evolution of the esports industry. To provide the most productive esports matchmaking event possible, Reed MIDEM has aligned itself with an advisory team of elite sector professionals, directly invested in the future of esports.
- Arnd Benninghoff, EVP, MTG & CEO, MTGx Ventures (Sweden)
- Matthieu Dallon, CEO, ESWC & Toornament.com and President, France Esports (France)
- Mike Sepso, SVP, Activision Blizzard (USA)
- Wouter Sleijffers, CEO, Fnatic (UK)
- Susan Tully, CEO, H2K Gaming (USA)
