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With Blizzard having some of the most exciting video game contenders for eSport glory, it’s a pretty big deal for a company to secure the exclusive rights to stream official competitions. This is exactly what Twitch just did by signing a deal with the studio, making it the only third-party platform that’s allowed to stream tournament events.
The deal is set to last for two years, at which time, fans of Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch will be able to watch official competitions exclusively on the Amazon-owned video hosting service. This puts Twitch ahead of the game, with growing interest in eSports looking increasingly like a good investment for advertisers, Kotaku reports.
For the moment, two of the most noteworthy events that viewers may want to watch out for is the Global Championship for Heroes of the Storm and the APEX League for Overwatch. These events will be streaming on the official platforms owned by Blizzard as well as Twitch.
Officially speaking, those on YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter cannot expect to see the competition live. Fortunately, playback and highlight reels are still allowed to be hosted by these platforms.
Aside from the obvious benefits that this brings to Twitch (i.e. increased live views), the deal also comes with a neat package for the viewers themselves. Blizzard is going to be offering Twitch Prime, which is like Amazon Prime. Subscribers will then receive a golden loot box for Overwatch.
More than anything else, however, Twitch will now have enough time to cultivate its eSports-specific services. As The Los Angeles Times points out, this deal also makes the investment that Amazon made when it purchased Twitch a lot more palatable. After all, as the platform’s Chief Operating Officer Kevin Lin said, the advertising deals this arrangement could generate is potentially massive.
“We could build something largely advertising- and licensing-driven or we can try to do some new things [to make money] in e-sports,” Lin explained. “This gives us more flexibility and time to think through this.”
