The British Basketball League (BBL) has entered into a new multi-year partnership with Innovation Esports to develop, launch and deliver its inaugural BBL Gaming and Esports programme.
BBL recognises the growth of gaming, competitive gaming and esports across sports and sports education, and its capability to deliver positive change for young people, fans of the sport, and the communities engaged with the BBL teams. The BBL Gaming and Esports programme aims to engage experienced players alongside fans, teams and the wider community to participate.
The British Basketball Esports programme will deliver a mixture of casual and competitive play, that will allow players to build towards a pro-am season via a series of qualification rounds, that culminates in a draft combine seeing the best players picked to enter the pro-am season, and a showpiece pro-am playoff championship.
Registration to take part in casual and competitive tournament play will commence on July 1 and the qualification rounds will start on August 1. The pro-am league will start in parallel with the new BBL season in the autumn.
“We are excited to launch the BBL Gaming and Esports Programme to extend how we can build a bond with our fans. At a time when we know our fans want to engage with their teams but have been unable to do so physically, this gives them a way to not only support but participate on behalf of the teams they follow. This will grow during this year into a parallel season running our esports league alongside our main league,” Andy Webb, COO of BBL, said.
