Chinese OTT Platform Douyu Latches On To PSG E-Sports Team

Under the deal, Douyu will appear on PSG.LGD’s team shirts in Dota 2 competitions. The announcement of the partnership comes as PSG prepare to take part in The International for the first time. The Dota2 tournament is the world championship of Valve’s multiplayer online battle arena video game, taking place from today till 25th August in Vancouver.

The deal comes right after it scored a similar shirt sponsorship agreement last week with Monster Energy, who are keen to expand their market share in Asia. The moves come as reports of PSG scouring for a new shirt sponsor in an Asian insurance or electronics brand gather steam as current sponsor Emirates have baulked at the US$93m (almost 3X the current rate) the club is demanding for the renewal.

A statement from Douyu added, “It is with great pride that we join the PSG.LGD family of which we have followed the many great performances since the team’s launch four months ago. The team has great potential and has, up until now, been present at the very top by winning the Epicenter XL and the MDL Changsha, two important tournaments last May. We will do our best to lead the team towards new heights and make it shine most notably on Chinese territory, where we enjoy a large network.”

While Douyu’s sponsorship activity in the Asian market has been rather muted—a solitary, year-long deal with South Korean e-sports team SK Telecom T1 team in 2017—however, Tencent’s fresh investment in the live e-sports streaming platform earlier in March will likely see a heated battle with Wang Sicong’s (Wang Jianlin’s son) Twitch offshoot Panda TV.