Comcast Corp.’s NBC Sports has announced that they will be televising a $100,000 prize pool open tournament for Psyonix’s Rocket League this summer, according to the Wall Street Journal.
NBC Sports reasoning behind going into esports is to capture the younger male demographic who is considered hard-to-reach due to not having traditional cable services. NBC Sports believes that esports space was becoming “touch to ignore” when looking at new broadcasting opportunities.
The qualifiers for the car-soccer tournament will start in July with the events being televised on regional NBC Sports channels on the weekends in August. Once the tournament reaches its final stages, the event will be televised on NBC Sports proper.
Rocket League will be the first endeavor for NBC network of channels. Other networks have already been producing esports content for a few years. ESPN has televised footage of Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm, Valve’s DOTA 2 and Capcom’s Street Fighter series in the past. TBS has created a whole brand called ELEAGUE, which has showcased games like Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Blizzard’s Overwatch and Capcom’s Street Fighter V.