ESL and Dreamhack announced a deal with Huya – China's largest streaming platform. As a result, it will become the exclusive partner of tournament organizers and will broadcast major cybersports events in Chinese, including Mandarin and other dialects prevalent in different regions of the country.
For now, the contract is for one year. The deal includes broadcasts of all upcoming major events taking place at ESL One, IEM, ESL Pro, as well as CS GO and Dota 2 tournaments organized by DreamHack, The first tournament to be broadcast on Huya will be ESL One Cologne. There will be a separate division for teams from Asian countries, represented by TYLOO and three other as yet unnamed teams.
This is not the first time ESL and Huya have tried to agree on a partnership. In September 2019, the two companies announced the «joint venture» and Huya's further plans to invest in ESL. However, this decision was reversed in early 2020. Modern Times Group, which includes ESL, attributed this «to a divergence in the parties' views on key terms and risk allocation». Probably now the partners have managed to find common ground after all.
Huya is currently one of the most important Asian streaming platforms. Tencent – the multinational conglomerate that owns Riot Games and also has stakes in some other major gaming-related companies, holds a large stake in it.
