Youtube gets ECS exclusivity deal
Another huge step for Youtube’s adaption of Esports was announced today, and now two of the biggest CS: GO competitions belong to the famous streaming service.
ECS or Esports Championship Series is a competition that was created last year by FaceIt and Twitch. It’s now changing hands to Youtube completely with a multi year partnership deal that’s going to make streaming rights exclusive to the former.
ECS, which is currently in its third season, established itself as one of the major CS:GO leagues in the world with both North American and European league divisions throughout 2016. One of the major features implemented by the ECS was revenue sharing and co-ownership of the league itself for the participating teams, a practice that won’t be affected by the transition over to YouTube.
“This is our most significant investment into esports to date and illustrates our continued commitment to growing esports with the hundreds of millions of gamers watching YouTube each day,” Ryan Wyatt, Global Head of Gaming Content at YouTube said in a press release.
With ECS now in its pocket, Youtube is establishing a strong Esports presence especially in CS: GO as it also revealed it has acquired rights to the ESL Pro League, which means two of the largest CS: GO competitions now belong to the website putting competitor Twitch in danger.
