Twitter to livestream its first eSports competition

Aiming to woo the growing league of gamers and turn its fortunes, micro-blogging site Twitter from this weekend will livestream its first eSports competition via ELEAGUE where teams would be playing 'Counter-Strike: Global Offensive' - a multiplayer first-person shooter video game.

Recently, Twitter reached an agreement with ELEAGUE -- a professional eSports organisation - to provide live-streaming coverage of the semi-finals and championship of the gaming competition scheduled to take place on Friday and Saturday in Atlanta (Saturday and Sunday in Indian subcontinent).

In addition to live event coverage, the @EL Twitter handle would provide real-time highlights, GIFs, memes, stats and score updates, Periscope content with ELEAGUE on-air talent and behind-the-scenes footage with players.

With this deal, eSports organisation would have an advantage of using Twitter's audience to interact with fans and promote competitive gaming, Tech Crunch reported.

For Twitter, the deal is a way to tap into a growing audience of gamers eventually getting more active users on its network.

"ESports fans go to Twitter to see and talk about what is happening now in competitive gaming," Anthony Noto, Twitter's Chief Financial Officer, is quoted as saying.

"Gamers are one of the largest and most engaged audiences on Twitter and we are thrilled with this partnership to bring them the live content from Eleague and Twitter commentary they are already looking for, all on one screen," Noto added.

The micro-blogging website is on a spree to sign agreements across the spectrum to livestream their content on its platform.

Recently it inked a pact with Bloomberg Media to stream their shows on Twitter.

Twitter signed a deal with the US television network CBS to stream both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

It now has permission to broadcast the CBSN feed -- the company's 24-hour digital news streaming service -- and anyone online can watch for free even if they do not have a Twitter account.

It is known that Twitter will make money from advertising when it streams 10 NFL games later this year, and CBS is a partner for those games too.

Twitter also live streamed the Wimbledon coverage and is also in talks with the NBA, Major League Soccer (MLS) and Turner for more streaming rights.

--IANS

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