BMW partners with Cloud9, Fnatic, FunPlus Phoenix, G2 Esports, and T1

German automotive giant BMW has partnered with five organisations as part of its expanded efforts in esports.

It will work with Cloud9, after an initial partnership in March 2019, as well as Fnatic, FunPlus Phoenix, G2 Esports, and T1.

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The partnerships will insist of content activations across social media, a jersey sponsorship, the sharing of information, and “technology transfer” with BMW’s engineers and designers on both software and hardware. This is seen as a global approach to esports from BMW, with the organisations being based in North America, England, China, Germany, and China.

Jens Thiemer, Senior Vice President Consumer and Brand for BMW, spoke on the venture in a release: “Joining forces with the best teams in the world, we aim to use our design and innovation skills to help shape the discipline in the long term. Our esports involvement is an important milestone providing, for the first time, a new intersectionality with a dynamic and fast-growing community. We consider esports a promising, growing addition to our marketing activities.”

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As with other automotive deals in esports, BMW will provide vehicles for the teams to use as transport to and from events. While BMW has activated in the industry prior to this development, these partnerships are said to be the first that wasn’t made at a local level.

Joe Marsh, CEO of T1, also spoke on the deal: “Together with some of the most elite global esports organizations, T1 is thrilled to partner with BMW to elevate innovation and entertainment in the gaming industry. Faker and the entire T1 family are excited to create content, products, and programs with the BMW team that showcase our shared values of competitiveness and premier performance for esports fans and enthusiasts around the world.”

Esports Insider says: It’s clear that BMW has been interested in esports for quite some time now with its prior involvements, but this marks a real effort to market itself to esports fans through five popular, prominent brands. We’re intrigued to see what’s to come on the content front.

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