Jared W. March 12, 2019
FACEIT has announced a new partnership with Pinnacle promoting its Esports Championship Series competition.
The partnership will cover seasons 7 and 8 of the ECS Pinnacle Cup, formerly known as the ECS Challenger Cup, through which top Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams compete for potential spots in the ECS.
The ECS Pinnacle Cup features 32 teams split evenly between North American and European regions. Teams compete in swiss stages to determine rankings, with the highest ranked teams becoming first in line for placement into ECS Regular Season play.
Pinnacle is a sports betting platform founded in 1998. The platform began taking bets on esports competitions in 2010, and today offers betting services on a variety of competitive games including League of Legends, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Pinnacle’s nine years in esports have developed into an offering that includes markets spread across more than 30 competitive titles, with esports now standing as the company’s fourth most popular sport by betting volume.
Marco Blume, trading director at Pinnacle, was bullish in describing the partnership’s prospects.
“Everyone at Pinnacle wants to be a part of pushing the growth of esports and partnerships like the one we have just signed with FACEIT will help us do that,” Blume said. “It’s obviously a good move for the business but with so many esports fans in the company, it’s one we’re all really excited about as well.”
The latest season of ECS play will see a new format in which the world’s top CS:GO teams compete in individual ECS Regular Season tournaments, with winning teams being sent directly to the season’s finals event.
FACEIT CBO and Co-founder Michele Attisani spoke to the company’s excitement for both the new format and the partnership with Pinnacle.
“ECS Season 7 is set to be the most exciting and absorbing iteration yet with the new format and we’re pleased to be partnered with an organisation in Pinnacle who share our passion for and dedication to the esports ecosystem and its growth and prosperity,” Attisani said.
The ECS Season 7 finals will be held in London at SSE Arena and begin on June 6. Three tournament winners from each region’s Regular Season competitions will be invited, along with a fourth team from each region taken from overall ECS Regular Season rankings.