Cloud9 partners with BMW, promises Cloud9 players in commercial

Cloud9 has announced its new partnership with automobile giant BMW.

The American esports organization revealed the sponsorship deal in a Twitter post along with a quick video from CEO Jack Etienne. Although the scope and details of the deal were not released, Etienne stated that the Cloud9 team did make some new commercials for BMW.

Notable Cloud9 members such as Overwatch player Becca “Aspen” Rukavina and League of Legends player Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi will be in an upcoming BMW commercial. The details of its release are yet to be announced by either of the two parties. This deal marks the first esports team sponsorship for the German luxury vehicle maker.

However, this is not the first general esports venture for BMW. The German multinational company was the official partner of Riot in Europe’s annual League of Legends tournament in August 2017. The EU LCS Summer Finals in Paris that year saw a rare single event sponsorship from BMW.

Giant automotive manufacturers such as Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and Honda have had their fair share of sponsorship and partner deals in the esports industry. These deals are already predominant in traditional sports, where car companies spent $1.28 billion USD across more than 500 individual sports partnerships.

As these partnerships have already borne fruit in the traditional sports world, these brands having increasingly noticed the rapid growth of the esports industry. Big automobile brands have been eyeing the esports audience for a while now, and various car brands are already extending their exposure to the gaming community.

There’s little doubting that traditional and non-endemic advertising brands will soon be some of the largest players in esports.

Cloud9 recently signed a sponsorship deal with AT&T. That partnership included a weekly digital video series called “The Nines”. The series will feature 12 teams under the Cloud9 umbrella representing various competitive games.