MP & Silva bags e-sports media rights

MP & Silva, a leading international media rights company that owns, manages and distributes television and media has been appointed the global marketing rights partner of Garena.Garena is Southeast Asia’s largest Internet and mobile platform company. The appointment will see MP & Silva work closely with Garena to secure brand partnerships, maximizing commercial opportunities in the Asia Pacific for three major electronic sports (eSports) properties.The agreement is significant for MP & Silva as its first foray into the eSports scene. With a global audience reach of 256 million, eSports is an increasingly lucrative and booming industry with global revenues expecting to reach US$463 million in 2016 via advertising, sponsorship, media rights, merchandise & tickets and additional game publisher investment.MP & Silva’s CEO, Marco Auletta said: “This announcement is a great milestone for MP & Silva and an emphatic deal for our growing sponsorship business, and I’m heartened by Garena’s confidence in our team to deliver results to continue growing the value of their properties. It is also a significant first step for us into eSports while underlining our leadership and vision in breaking into a new industry with such enormous potential.”Garena’s Vice President of Group Game Operations, Jason Ng: “We are delighted to partner MP & Silva to help realise the full potential of eSports in the region.”Rene Valencia, MP & Silva’s Global Head of Sponsorship: “We have been tracking the profile of eSports for some time, and from our market analysis we can see that the current eSports sponsorship revenues have not been realised to their full potential. Given the reach and scale ofeSports in Asia, and its ability to access the difficult-to-reach demographic of tech-savvy millennialswith above average disposable income, we believe we can help realise the commercial potential of Garena’s properties.”