Svenska Spel, a state-owned company operating in the Swedish regulated gambling market, has announced that it will finance the expansion of Esportshall with the aim of developing electronic sports in Sweden.
The lottery operator will become the principal sponsor of Esportshall new ‘Grassroots Cup’ tournaments, an amateur series seeking to uncover the next generation of Swedish talents across all major formats of competitive gaming.
The partnership is aimed at eSports beginners, in particular players of the popular esports game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO), but several competitions aimed at new players have been organized under the agreement. Sweden is the host country for DreamHack, one of the most important sports and gaming festivals in the world, and Swedish Counter-Strike players are among the best in the world.
From grassroots to elite
Svenska Spel project manager of sponsorships, Jimmy Sandberg, said the goal is to make sure that grassroots players have a chance to progress in the higher tiers of play. Svenska Spel and Esportshall have teamed up with Svenska Elitserien, an organization focusing on hosting online esports competitions and working with Esportshall.
Svenska Spel project manager of sponsorships, Jimmy Sandberg, said:
“Svenska Spel wants to be involved in developing Swedish eSports, from grassroots to elite. We are therefore very happy to be able to participate and enable these grassroots cups at Esportshall together with the Elite Series. To give the younger players a clear context to practice e-sports, where association life is also present, we believe is important going forward for Swedish e-sports”
Karl Sergal, founder of Esportshall, commented:
“Esportshall begins a new collaboration with Elitserien and Svenska Spel, with the aim of strengthening the grassroots in Swedish e-sports, when Esportshall went from idea to reality, it felt natural to pull our straw to the pile and support Sweden’s largest e-sports league by giving them access to our premises”
Esportshall also has agreements with computer company Lenovo and gaming equipment provider Corsair.
Gilbert Fletcher is an ex financial journalist from Cambridgeshire, England. Gilbert worked with several leading financial publications before joining Gaming Industry Media.