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IBM Enters Esports Arena with Activision Blizzard in New Multi-Year Deal as the Presenting Partner of the Overwatch League Grand Finals
IBM to help power interactive and analytical content for the Overwatch League, engaging fans and players through cloud, IBM’s Watson artificial intelligence, and machine learning
Today, IBM and the Overwatch League, the world’s first global esports league with 20 city-based teams, announced its first-of-a-kind multi-year deal to bring IBM’s cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) technology to esports. A sponsorship component kicks off at this year’s 2020 Overwatch League Grand Finals, which started Oct. 8 and run through Oct. 10. With the agreement – IBM’s first-ever esports deal – the technology leader becomes the official AI, cloud, and analytics sponsor of the Overwatch League. The deal covers the 2020 Grand Finals and the entirety of the 2021 and 2022 Overwatch League seasons.
Through the course of the deal, IBM and the Overwatch League plan to leverage IBM’s suite of advanced cloud and AI products. Starting in 2021, IBM and the Overwatch League will be working closely to develop technology solutions leveraging IBM’s expertise in natural language processing and machine learning to improve the league’s rankings system, and utilize IBM’s Watson AI capabilities to create live and in-broadcast predictive analysis, with specific solutions currently under development.
“We’re constantly striving to give fans the ability to more meaningfully engage with the Overwatch League, and teaming up with IBM enables us to do just that,” said Brandon Snow, Chief Revenue Officer of Activision Blizzard Esports. “IBM’s cutting-edge AI and machine learning, underpinned by cloud technologies, will help enable us to bring interactive and innovative engagement opportunities to our fans and teams. This is a fantastic benefit to our viewers, and we’re very excited to be announcing it during the biggest event of our season.”
“We’re thrilled to bring our world class Cloud platforms and Watson portfolio to one of the leading esports platforms in the world,” said Noah Syken, Vice President of Sports & Entertainment Partnerships, IBM. “The solutions we’re partnering to create can help the organizations, players, and fans enjoy an even more immersive, engaging experience. We look forward to working with the Overwatch League, to bring innovative solutions at scale, to broad and relevant audiences.”
The sponsorship with the Overwatch League will kick off in 2021 and include new solutions, that plan to be hosted on the IBM Cloud. Those solutions, which are currently under development, will leverage IBM’s suite of analytics tools to process in-match data, adding Watson’s AI capabilities through the use of Watson Machine Learning and the AutoAI functionality within Watson Studio. Additionally, the solutions will find new ways to showcase the wide array of historical statistics that the Overwatch League gets from live play.
The announcement of IBM and the Overwatch League teaming together is IBM’s first foray into the global world of esports and joins an impressive list of sports and entertainment partnerships that IBM technology powers around the world. IBM has been a part of gaming history as a hardware manufacturer, chip creator, and software provider for developers since 1985. Over the past 35 years, IBM has worked with gaming and esports entities through PowerPC processors, NLP, and cloud technology.
IBM has been a long-time partner to a range of sports organizations, teams, and events, including tennis (US Open and Wimbledon), golf (The Masters), football (via ESPN Fantasy Football), and the GRAMMY Awards. Through IBM’s partnerships, including IBM’s new engagement with the Overwatch League, IBM is able to reimagine sports, and entertainment experiences for fans, players and coaches alike, leveraging the flexibility of the hybrid cloud, and other AI-powered solutions.
SOURCE IBM
Source: Latest News on European Gaming Media Network
This is a Syndicated News piece. Photo credits or photo sources can be found on the source article: IBM Enters Esports Arena with Activision Blizzard in New Multi-Year Deal as the Presenting Partner of the Overwatch League Grand Finals
Latest News
Levy announcement: GamCare statement and data
Statement:
Mark Weiss, Deputy CEO and Director of Communications and External Affairs at GamCare, commented: “We welcome today’s announcement from the Government on the statutory levy and look forward to working with the NHS, other providers and future commissioners to ensure the success of the new treatment, prevention and research system.
“At GamCare, our priority is making sure that people who need support for gambling harms receive it as quickly and effectively as possible. With a record 55,000 people calling the National Gambling Helpline last year alone, now is the right time for this important clarity on the future system.
“With 27 years’ experience running the National Gambling Helpline, GamCare plays a vital role ensuring people can access gambling harms support when they need it most.
“Just as we welcome this renewed focus on treatment, we recognise the importance of protecting vulnerable people, particularly children, before harms escalate. That’s why we welcome the Government’s emphasis on prevention. Having witnessed a steep rise in our Helpline callers citing difficulties with online slots, GamCare further welcomes the introduction of new youth-focussed stake limits – an important step in preventing future harm.”
Additional new data from GamCare
- Almost half of calls (45%) to the National Gambling Helpline now cite issues with online slot machine games.
- The proportion of calls to the National Gambling Helpline citing issues with online slot machine games has increased by one-third since the pandemic, according to the gambling support charity GamCare.
- The charity found that, of the 6697 callers who disclosed a form of gambling to Advisers on the Helpline in 2023-2024*, 45 per cent cited challenges with gambling on online slot games, a figure which stood at 34 per cent in 2020-2021.
Activity | 2020-2021 | 2021-2022 | 2022-2023 | 2023-2024 |
Online Slots | 33.6% | 45.8% | 43.9% | 44.6% |
The post Levy announcement: GamCare statement and data appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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Play’n GO announces exclusive game launch with Hard Rock Bet
Play’n GO, the world’s leading casino entertainment provider, has today announced the release of a new game title available exclusively to Hard Rock Bet online casino players in New Jersey.
Play’n GO recently announced the beginning of its partnership with Hard Rock Digital to provide premium content for its highly-rated Hard Rock Bet online casino in New Jersey.
The Swedish-founded gaming giant partnered up with the renowned global entertainment brand to create Hard Rock Pork N Roll, a spin-off of another wildly popular Play’n GO title, Piggy Blitz. The resulting game is the outcome of many months of collaboration and is predicted to entertain Hard Rock Bet players in the same style as its predecessor.
Magnus Olsson, Chief Commercial Officer at Play’n GO, commented “Our formal partnership with Hard Rock Digital is still in its relative infancy, but many months of work have gone into both the partnership itself and the design of this game, with input from both businesses. We’re excited by this new exclusive title, and it is a testament to the innovation and creativity of our game designers to create a fun spin-off of one of our classic titles. Hard Rock Pork N Roll is sure to be a huge success- the name of the game alone makes it stand out as an instant classic! This game is evidence of our ability to create top-quality, bespoke content for all of our customers, something we’re looking forward to doing more of in future.”
Grant Williams, SVP-Casino, Hard Rock Digital added “Our ‘Only at Hard Rock’ section continues to grow with another exclusive, bespoke experience and the addition of Hard Rock Pork N Roll—an immersive title that seamlessly weaves signature Hard Rock elements into the gameplay. Working with Play’n Go on this custom creation has set the standard for future collaboration, and we’re confident that Hard Rock Pork N Roll will quickly become a headliner among the 2,300+ games on our top-rated app.”
To find out more about Play’n GO and its Hard Rock Digital partnership, as well as its US activity, please visit playngo.com.
The post Play’n GO announces exclusive game launch with Hard Rock Bet appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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Stretch Network announces Black Friday Weekend Tournament
Black Friday Weekend is here! Stretch Network introduces another player-focused initiative – the Black Friday Weekend promotion. Running from November 29th to December 1st, this event offers up to 90% discounts on buy-ins for the World Poker League tournament series.
Here’s how it works:
- Players register for special phase tournaments at a reduced cost.
- These 2-minute events don’t require player actions and provide the same starting stack as the target tournament.
- After the phase tournament ends, players are automatically registered for the main event.
- Players already in the target tournament will have their stacks combined for added excitement.
Raise with us to go all-in on player satisfaction.
The post Stretch Network announces Black Friday Weekend Tournament appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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