Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment announced a multi-year partnership with Caesars Entertainment and the sports and entertainment conglomerate’s sports properties: the Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Devils and Prudential Center. The partnership will introduce New Jersey sports fans to Caesars Entertainment’s new sports book experience at two of its Atlantic City properties and The Caesars Casino & Sports app through special promotions and activations inside the exclusive Caesars Club at Prudential Center. In addition to exposure on Prudential Center’s 80 digital boards and colossal 4,800-square-foot outdoor LED board, Caesars’ branding will appear on Club Level tickets, premium wristbands, concourse pillars and more. Caesars branding, including signage and waitstaff attire, will complete the Caesars premium experience in Caesars Club.
Speaking of the 76ers, the team unveiled its 2018-19 City Edition uniform, presented in partnership with Official Jersey Patch Sponsor StubHub. The 2018-19 City Edition uniform celebrates “Philadelphia’s rich history of the challenger’s mentality that inspired the Rocky and Creed films and will debut the outfit on Nov. 9. The uniform’s core “displays the iconic circle of 13 stars derived from the boxing ring where Rocky Balboa first squared off against Apollo Creed, while the gray sweatsuit-textured base was influenced by both Adonis Creed’s and Rocky’s legendary training scenes throughout the streets of Philadelphia. The crisp blue, red and white waistband trim on the shorts is inspired by Rocky’s championship belt.”
US Ski & Snowboard agreed on a new partnership deal with John Paul Mitchell Systems in the hair products category. The deal will highlight their product lines at domestic Freeski and Snowboard events, most notably the 2019 FIS Snowboard, Freeski and Freestyle World Championships in February.
Van Wagner Sports and Entertainment and William & Mary agreed to a long-term partnership naming VWSE as the exclusive sales agent for campus-wide strategic business partnerships, athletic sponsorships and multimedia rights with an initial term through 2028. Per the agreement, VWSE will work with W&M leadership to explore opportunities that drive business relationships benefiting the community and the university, its students and faculty on a year-round basis.
The new update to the ESPN App on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One now allow fans to subscribe to ESPN+ and immediately begin watching additional live sports events, original shows and series, as well as access the entire 30 for 30 documentary series and more.
FloSports and the Montverde Academy boys varsity basketball team announced a partnership that brings all eight of Montverde Academy’s home regular season games to the platform where they will be aired live and on-demand to a worldwide audience exclusively on FloHoops.com. This makes Montverde Academy the first high school basketball program to have a live digital streaming deal, according to the company.
Combate Americas announced its second annual Copa Combate one-night MMA tournament to DAZN, along with Univision and UDN. The event will feature eight fighters, representing eight different countries, battling it out for a $100,000 grand prize, at Save Mart Center in Fresno on Dec. 7.
Blizzard is giving Overwatch Contenders an overhaul for the overall 2019 season. The Path to Pro will not only see prizing adjusted to better reward top teams, but Contenders North America will now be split into two regions, each with eight teams, bringing the total number of overall regions to eight. Meanwhile, other regions will now reduce the total number of teams from 12 to eight. Soft region locking is being introduced to “ensure that Contenders continues to develop local talent all around the world” and Contenders teams can have a maximum of three non-resident players on their roster. Seasons in Contenders 2019 will also be longer, and the total number of seasons will be reduced from three to two.
Gaming headset and audio accessory brand Turtle Beach is expanding its partnership with DreamHack ahead of the event’s Atlanta stop in mid-November. The festival becomes the third DreamHack event this year that Turtle Beach has sponsored and provided all gaming headsets for the Free to Play PC area, as well as the second consecutive event integrating the Elite Atlas Pro Performance PC Gaming Headset. This expanded partnership allows for the model to be used on-site in competitions that tap into the collegiate market, through the American Video Game League’s Community League of Legends and Fortnite tournaments.
WorldGaming Network announced the start of a competitive tournament for Hearthstone, titled the Hearthstone Canadian Challenge powered by WorldGaming, with more than $20,000 in cash and prizes. The tournament will run through Dec. with closed qualifier to be held Dec. 8 to determine the top four players who will go on to compete in the Grand Finals in Toronto on Dec. 15 at The Samsung Experience Store.
MLS postseason gets underway with New York City FC/Philadelphia Union at 7p on FS1 and UniMas, followed by FC Dallas/Portland Timbers at 9:30p on UniMas and ESPN+.