ESL Collegiate finds first sponsor in Grubhub

ESL has partnered with food delivery service Grubhub to support its ESL Collegiate initiative.

Grubhub will act as the official food delivery partner of ESL Collegiate, allowing fans to vote which food on-stream talent have to eat during a ‘Cast & Chat Chowdown’ segment.

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ESL has also announced the return of the BIG EAST Conference at the ESL Collegiate Fall Invitational, with new conferences being announced in the near future. The invitational starts on November 2nd and will run until December 8th, with weekly matches taking place on League of Legends.

Kevin Rosenblatt, VP of Product and Content at ESL discussed the partnership in a release: “By integrating Grubhub, a fan-favorite among college students, as ESL Collegiate’s first official food delivery partner, we will provide on-demand food delivery options for both our collegiate players and fans. We’re hungry to find new ways to engage esports athletes on college campuses, and Grubhub is the perfect partner to help us create those unique experiences.” 

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ESL partnered with American sports channel Big Ten Network in February to launch the BTN League of Legends season. The deal saw 14 Big Ten schools compete against each other live on Twitch, YouTube, and Caffeine.

Jessica Burns, VP of Brand Marketing & Creative at Grubhub also commented: “Esports has become an incredibly exciting industry that’s seen extraordinary growth, and it ties in naturally with what we do. With our integration into the ESL Collegiate Fall Invitational, we’re able to tap into a core audience across college students and gamers, giving them the food they crave to get through the competition.”

Esports Insider says: This seems like a smart venture for Grubhub, with college students and esports fans being a great audiences to market to. While the segment activation sounds a little strange, it’ll no doubt make the audience hungry themselves and that’s the entire point, right?

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