Essendon FC, an Australian rules football club, is bringing an esports franchise into the fold.
Team Abyss, which competes in League of Legends, the Oceanic Pro League, and the Oceanic Challenger League, will become part of Essendon next year, it was announced Thursday. Essendon FC gained the licensing rights to Team Abyss through a partnership with Executive Sports and Entertainment, a Sydney-based agency.
The deal means that Team Abyss will move to Melbourne and be completely rebranded as a division of the football club.
“As a Club, we are looking at ways to diversify our business, invest in growth and create new opportunities to drive incremental consumer and commercial revenues,” Essendon chief marketing officer Justin Rodski said in a statement.
“eSports teams are no different to any other professional sports club model and eSports fans are no different to any other sports fans in their passion to support their team.
“We will bring our expertise in elite and professional sport to strengthen the team across all areas, including a particular focus on player welfare and development.”
Essendon FC joins a laundry list of professional sports teams across the world that have bought esports franchises, most notably the Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat, New York Yankees, Manchester City, and Paris Saint-Germain. The Adelaide Football Club, a fellow Australian Football League team, was the first mainstream pro sports team in the country to acquire an esports team. More locally to Essendon, Melbourne City FC became Australia’s first major soccer club to sign an esports player.
The decision to buy the license to Team Abyss seems to be primarily driven by Essendon FC’s wish to attract a younger fan base; according to Rodski, nearly 300 million people worldwide watch esports and most of them are between 14 and 34 years old, a demographic that could be a gold mine for the Australian rules football team.
That basic premise is backed by claims from Essendon FC that the global esports audience will reach 400 million people in 2018. Already this year, the announcement revealed, the esports economy has rocketed to $696 million, including $517 million in brand and media rights spending along with a projected $64 million in consumer purchases.
“We are thrilled to partner with one of the biggest and most respected sports Clubs in Australia,” Rohan Sawyer, ESE’s managing director, said in a statement. “Essendon is an iconic brand with a huge supporter base and we are excited to give our team members the opportunities to live their dreams under a great club.
“eSports has already exploded globally and we see League of Legends and the OPL doing the same here.”