Philadelphia 76ers buys Team Dignitas, Apex Gaming

In a move that is the first for a sports organization in North America, Basketball team “Philadelphia 76ers” announced that it now owns both Team Ginitas and Apex Gaming in a merger announced Monday.

The merger will combine Apex’s League of Legends team, which just finished its first LCS split, with Dignitas’s other teams, including Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm and Smite. The teams will compete under the Dignitas name, but the 76ers say they intend to run day-to-day operations and provide infrastructure support, “sharing best practices in sponsorship, sales, branding, digital marketing, merchandising, publicity and more,” according to a release.

“The attractiveness of this deal is as much about the people as it is the opportunity,” said Philadelphia 76ers CEO Scott O’Neil in the release. “Bringing together gaming industry luminaries including Greg Richardson, Michael O’Dell and David and Michael Slan puts us on track to build the most respected and dominant franchise in the eSports space, spur fan engagement and reimagine corporate sponsorship to create a vibrant, global e-arena where the greatest players in the world aspire to compete.”

While it is the first time for a North American sport team, Europe got here first a couple of months ago when football teams began to invest in Esports like FC Schalke 04, Manchester United, and soon Bayern Munich. The basketball world is in the frontier of Sports-meet-Esports relations as many big names including Shaquille O’Neal and Rick Fox own and invest in Esports teams of pro players.