Maincast acquires ESL Pro Tour broadcast rights in three-year deal

Maincast has acquired the exclusive broadcast rights for ESL and DreamHack‘s ESL Pro Tour Counter-Strike: Global Offensive circuit for Russia and the CIS region.

Maincast has also secured regional exclusivity to DreamHack’s DreamLeague and ESL’s Dota 2 tournament circuit as part of the three-year deal, which is set to expire in February 2023.

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Marcus Lindmark, Co-CEO of DreamHack and Thomas Schmit, CCO of ESL addressed the deal in a joint statement: “This multi-year agreement with Maincast is another testament to the attractiveness of DreamHack and ESL’s esports products such as the ESL Pro Tour. Maincast will not only play an important role in delivering DreamHack and ESL content to our existing fans in Russia and CIS over the next three years, but also in attracting new viewers and fans to our premier CS:GO and Dota 2 tournaments as the esports audience continue to grow.”

The first broadcast from Maincast as part of the agreement will be DreamHack Leipzig, taking place from January 24th-26th. The festival incorporates both a DreamHack CS:GO Open and Dota 2 Major DreamLeague Season 13.

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Andrii Grygoriev, CEO & Co-founder of Maincast also commented: “On behalf of Maincast team, I’m happy to announce our partnership with MTG, ESL and Dreamhack. We will provide Russian-speaking coverage of ESL Pro Tour — one of the biggest event series in competitive gaming, which comprises ESL One, Intel® Extreme Masters, Dreamhack Masters, ESL Pro League, Dreamhack Open, Dreamleague and other tournament brands.”

In December, Blake Broadcasting entered an agreement to broadcast the ESL Pro Tour in the United States, Canada, and Asia, with the exception of China. TV 2 Denmark acquired the Danish broadcast rights to the CS:GO circuit in a three-year deal in October.

Esports Insider says: This is a great deal for esports fans in Russia and the CIS region, providing better access to a lot of the best CS:GO and Dota 2 events in the calendar. Hopefully deals such as this perform well as it’s healthier for the entire ecosystem if organisers’ events are in demand from broadcasters.

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