{"id":4992,"date":"2020-03-30T03:35:13","date_gmt":"2020-03-30T03:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=4992"},"modified":"2026-04-24T06:41:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T09:41:05","slug":"bilibili-esports-overwatch-china-sports-betting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/bilibili-esports-overwatch-china-sports-betting","title":{"rendered":"Bilibili eSports joins forces with Overwatch League"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Bilibili eSports has become the Chinese production partner for Activision Blizzard\u2019s&nbsp;Overwatch&nbsp;League. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>China.-  Bilibili Esports will replace Banana Culture as the new Chinese production partner for Activision Blizzard&#8217;s Overwatch League, furthering its investment into the eSports market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It has also been announced as co-host for the 2020&nbsp;Overwatch&nbsp;Contenders competition, which will feature a $2.5million prize pool.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bilibili has played a bigger role in China&#8217;s eSports market in recent years, noted for their heavy involvement in&nbsp;League of Legends&nbsp;and&nbsp;Overwatch.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is widely recognised for its video platform which targets young people and fans in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Its involvement within the eSports market, specifically with Overwatch, has become more dominant in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In September 2018, it secured a franchise slot in the second season of the&nbsp;Overwatch&nbsp;League (OWL), which features city-based teams spread across North America, Europe and Asia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The company named its Overwatch team the Hangzhou Spark which reportedly cost somewhere in the region of $30-$60 million for its slot in the league.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Pandaily, Bilibili is one of the few companies in the world that currently operate as a multi-eSports team owner, tournament operator and eSports content provider although whether this will be allowed to continue in the eSports market remains to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bilibili eSports has become the Chinese production partner for Activision Blizzard\u2019s&nbsp;Overwatch&nbsp;League.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2865,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Bilibili eSports has been appointed as the new Chinese production partner for Activision Blizzard\u2019s Overwatch League and co-host for the 2020 Overwatch Contenders. This strategic move solidifies Bilibili's expanding role in the Chinese eSports market, where it already operates as a multi-eSports team owner and content provider, further integrating its operations within key gaming verticals.","focusai_entities":"Bilibili eSports, Activision Blizzard, Overwatch League, Banana Culture, Overwatch Contenders, League of Legends, Hangzhou Spark, Pandaily","focusai_location":"China, North America, Europe, Asia","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), affiliate_publisher (0.75), tech_data (0.7), marketing_crm (0.75), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Financial Impact","query":"What are the projected financial implications of this production partnership for Activision Blizzard's Overwatch League in the Chinese market, specifically concerning GGR potential and content monetization?"},{"label":"Vertical Integration Risks","query":"How does Bilibili's expanding vertical integration across eSports content production, team ownership, and tournament operation impact the competitive landscape and potential for regulatory scrutiny regarding market dominance and fair play governance frameworks?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,161,16338,153],"tags":[227,12536,233],"class_list":["post-4992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-daily-news","category-east-asia-news","category-igaming-news","tag-china","tag-esports","tag-sports-betting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4992"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5032,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4992\/revisions\/5032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}