The NBA team Miami Heat has just made the move to invest in eSports by buying up the player organization known as Misfits. The NBA franchise announced this purchase alongside its upcoming multigame eSports organization on Tuesday. Following this investment, the Heat will assist in a rebrand of the organization to match their colors, marketing, brand promotion and sponsorship.
Miami Heat chief executive officer Nick Arison said in a news release:
“The Miami Heat pride ourselves on being innovative in all aspects of sports and business. For us, it made perfect sense to partner with Misfits, a young and ambitious franchise in a sport that is blazing a trail in terms of 21st century recreational competition amongst Millennials”.
Miami Heat is the second NBA team to fully integrate into an eSports team. In September, the Philadelphia 76ers purchased a big part of Team Dignitas and Apex Gaming, merging the two into the Dignitas banner and using some of their staff from the NBA for the eSports team.
Misfits CEO Ben Spoont said:
“This partnership will be the catalyst and foundation to our continued expansion of the Misfits organization into a global esports brand and company. The Heat, innovators and leaders in traditional sports, will help Misfits to unlock meaningful value across all facets of our business.”
Misfits is an European multi-game eSports organization that’s currently participating in League of Legends, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone and Super Smash Bros.
Now that a team like Miami Heat has shown interest in eSports organizations, will other teams follow their lead? Only time will tell, but we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
