Could an esports team representing the Los Angeles Lakers potentially compete against an international esports organization like Team Paris or Team Shanghai? According to Mark Tatum, NBA Deputy Commissioner, it’s a future possibility.
On two separate occasions in April, first at the opening session of the 2017 CAA World Congress of Sports and then at NAB with M.E.T. 360 Live presented by NeuLion, Tatum expressed the international vision for the upcoming NBA 2K esports league.
“Right now, we have more than half to two-thirds of our NBA teams who have signed up and said they will have teams in the NBA 2K esports league,” Tatum first said of the new league, which last week named its Managing Director in senior NBA executive Brendan Donohue. “Long term, we can see a situation where a Team Shanghai is playing the esports Celtics, or the eSixers are playing a team in Paris, and this becomes a truly global esports league.”
The NBA 2K esports league is a collaborative effort between the league and Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. that will debut in 2018. In the next few weeks, the NBA will be announcing teams who will participate in the inaugural season. Teams such as the Sacramento Kings, Dallas Mavericks, Boston Celtics and Toronto Raptors have already expressed interest in joining the league.
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Last week, Tatum also spoke at NAB on M.E.T. 360 Live with Chris Wagner, Executive Vice President and c0-founder of NeuLion. The NBA Chief Operating Officer reaffirmed the league’s future outlook for the esports league on a global scale, mimicking his comments from the week prior.
“At launch (of the NBA 2K esports league), there’s going to be more than half to two-thirds of our teams who will sign up,” Tatum said. “The expectation is that in the next couple of years, all 30 teams will have their own e-team that will compete in this regular schedule leading up to a playoffs and then ultimately a championship.
“Our vision is, certainly in the short term having the 30 NBA teams, but there’s no reason why Team Shanghai won’t be playing the eKnicks or the eCeltics or the eLakers are going to be playing Team Paris as an example in a global tournament and a global championship.”
While the NBA is the U.S. professional sports league leading the charge on the esports front, the NFL has quietly conducted local and regional competitions with EA Sports over the past 15 years. Earlier this month, the NFL crowned a winner for its Madden 17 Club Series Championship, which was televised on NFL Network.
NFL Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Vice President of Consumer Products Chris Halpin told SportTechie that the regular programming of esports events over the last year is a “long-term investment” for the league and EA Sports. Similar to the NBA, the NFL also suggested the possibility of all 32 teams eventually having Madden representatives in the future.
“I think longer term, it’s continuing to flesh out the year-round competitive gaming series and tour and then also potentially building towards a setup where maybe all 32 NFL teams have their own Madden teams that are representing them and playing on their behalf,” Halpin said.