The cost of starting your own sports league
Blizzard’s entire approach to the Overwatch League has been different from other esports ventures. “We wanted to look at what made some of the things that make traditional sports so successful and apply that to our new league,” says Blizzard President Mike Morhaime. “We noticed there were a lot of endemic issues with the way organic esports would form that really didn't provide very much opportunity for team owners to really build a business around their teams. So we kind of want to address all of that and get ahead of the curve and do it right out of the gate with Overwatch.”
As a result, the Overwatch League more closely resembles American sports leagues like the NBA and NFL, with a closed franchise system that requires a hefty buy-in and approval from Blizzard itself. Blizzard was asking a rumored US$20 million buy-in to own an Overwatch League team, and with each team tied to a specific geographic location (New York, London, Seoul etc.) some owners reportedly paid much more to secure lucrative cities. When Blizzard’s terms were rst disclosed, many mocked them as outrageous – only the most successful esports organizations could put together the kind of money that Blizzard was asking. But these weren’t the organizations Blizzard was targeting. Instead, Blizzard went to corporations like Comcast, owners of the Philadelphia Fusion, and the billionaire owners of actual sports teams, like Robert Kraft, owner of the Boston Uprising and the NFL’s New England Patriots, and Stan Kroenke owner of the LA Gladiators, Arsenal F.C., and the NFL’s LA Rams.
Blizzard hasn’t just asked its partners to invest money, it’s put a lot of its own money into the competition too, which included building a state of the art multi-million dollar Blizzard Arena in Burbank, California to host the rst season of the league.
Blizzard has been on a hiring spree too, picking up some of the best (and most expensive) talent from esports, traditional sports and broadcast media to make the league a success. The league’s on-air casting talent is a veritable all-star list of greats from the past decade of esports, including League of Legends’ Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles and Erik “DoA” Lonnquist, Call of Duty and Halo’s Chris Puckett and Matt "Mr X" Morello, and CS: GO’s Mitch "Uber" Leslie and Auguste "Semmler" Massonnat.
It’s taking a different approach to how players are treated too. All 131 players in the league have guaranteed 1-year contracts from their teams with a player option for a second year, and a minimum salary of at least US$50,000, with many earning much more (Philadelphia Fusion star player, Lee "Carpe" Jae Hyeok, reportedly earns US$180,000) – a far cry from the win big or go home empty-handed lifestyle of most pro-gamers.
Ultimately, the drive behind all of this is Blizzard’s vision to turn the Overwatch League into, not just the biggest esports league, but the world’s rst truly global sports league, something that not even traditional sports have achieved.