Full Tilt, a leading poker brand that operates online games and tournaments, announced recently that it will be sponsoring G2 eSports, a world premier eSports club.
This move follows the trend of online betting companies becoming involved in the eSports industry, including DraftKings, FanDuel, and PokerStars.
The sponsorship deal is Full Tilt’s first venture into the eSports market and has an objective to capitalize on G2’s success in competitions that feature some of the world’s most popular online games including League of Legends, Dota 2, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm, in which the best gamers in the world are pitted against each other.
Mark Ody, Marketing Director at Full Tilt commented:
“eSports players love the thrill of competition, the battle of wits, and facing off against a tough opponent as they move into the unknown. That’s why we think that they’ll love learning more about poker, which is one of the modern world’s finest games, because it is a great mix of turn-based strategy and role playing games.
On the other hand, poker is much safer than the old days of the Wild West, so it is no longer a first-person shooter.”
The partnership comes just one month after Full Tilt became the first major poker brand that gained access to the Steam gaming platform after coming through the Greenlight process. Before the end of the year, Full Tilt’s play-money product will be available on Valve’s platform to over 125 million gamers.
“I am excited about this partnership and representing Full Tilt while competing and promoting the brand to the wider eSports community. It’s no secret that I am passionate about playing strategic competitive games and as there are so many transferable skills and common characteristics between online poker and eSports this makes the partnership a great fit,” said Thijs ‘ThijsNL’ Molendijk, G2 eSports and GosuGamers current world number one player.
Speaking about the partnership, G2 eSports’ founder and CEO, Carlos “ocelote” Rodríguez Santiago, said:
“Gaming and poker have a long intertwined history with successful gamers effectively transferring skills such as mental strength, determination, concentration and endurance for long hours of play to the game of poker. Therefore partnering up with an innovative site like Full Tilt was a natural step.
We are confident that the sponsorship will help introduce Full Tilt to our fans in a complementary way, giving the site and the game of poker in general, greater exposure in the eSports world.”
According to the company, the sponsorship will firstly focus on the support of G2’s Hearthstone team, digital asset placements such as team tournament sponsorship, Twitch broadcasting and advertising, team fan giveaways campaigns, and G2 weekly free-to-enter poker tournaments on Full Tilt.
