IBM and the Overwatch League, the world’s first global electronic sports league, announced their first deal to bring cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) technology to eSports.
In addition, a sponsorship starts to count for this year’s Overwatch League Grand Finals. With the deal, the technology leader becomes the official sponsor of AI, cloud and competition analysis. The settlement extends until the season and 2022.
Starting in 2021, IBM and the Overwatch League will work together to develop solutions leveraging IBM’s experience in natural language processing and machine learning to improve the league’s ranking system and use resources to create live predictive analytics and in transmission.
Agreement is IBM’s first foray into eSports
“We are constantly striving to give fans the ability to engage more meaningfully with the Overwatch League, and the partnership with IBM allows us to do just that,” said Brandon Snow, chief revenue officer at Activision Blizzard Esports.
“IBM’s cutting-edge AI and machine learning, powered by cloud technologies, will help us bring engagement opportunities to our fans and teams. It is a fantastic benefit for our viewers and we are excited to announce it during the biggest event of our season, ”he added.
Noah Syken, vice president of Sports and Entertainment Partnerships at IBM, also spoke. “We are excited to bring our world-class cloud platforms and portfolio to one of the world’s leading eSports platforms.”
Syken added: “the solutions we create in partnership can help organizations, players and fans to enjoy an even more immersive experience. We look forward to working with the league, to innovate on a large scale and to broad audiences ”.
The announcement of the merger of IBM and the Overwatch League is IBM’s first foray into the global world of electronic sports and joins a list of partnerships that the company’s technology drives around the world.
IBM has been a part of gaming history as a hardware manufacturer, chip maker and software provider for developers since 1985. For the past 35 years, IBM has worked with games and sports entities through PowerPC, NLP and cloud technology .
