Last week, the NBA 2K League officially announced a partnership with Twitch that makes the popular streaming platform the exclusive broadcaster for all league games.
Twitch now will be listed as the official livestreaming partner of the NBA 2K League, as well as one of the league’s founding partners, via the new deal.
Earlier in April, the NBA 2K League broadcasted it’s inaugural draft live on Twitch channels, an indicator that the two sides were working towards a more permanent working relationship.
The multi-year partnership deal includes all 199 potential games in the NBA 2K League season and the format includes weekly head to head matches, 3 regular season tournaments, a playoff bracket, and the finals.
Additionally, Twitch will assist in developing interactive custom overlays for use in the NBA 2K League broadcast, including other fan engagement initiatives and projects.
“This is a groundbreaking partnership for the NBA 2K League” NBA 2K League managing director Brendan Donohue said.
“Twitch shares our innovative spirit and commitment to putting the gaming community first, and is the ideal home to provide our passionate 2K, NBA, and esports fans around the world with the opportunity to catch all the excitement of our inaugural season.”
Twith has been in the business of partnerships such as these, as they reportedly paid $90 million for the exclusive broadcast rights to the Overwatch League back in January of this year.
It’s another big “get” for Twitch and will bring even more attention to the millions of Twitch channels on the growing platform, particularly in their Twitch sports section.
It also continues their separation from competitors such as Mixer streamers, YouTube gaming, Facebook gaming, Caffeine Streams, and DLive streams, which is being aggressive to become more competitive in the streaming industry.