The game developer 2k announcement yesterday to One Up as its official on-demand esports platform for the NBA 2K franchise in a multi-year deal. The partnership will begin with the release of the next installment in the franchise, NBA 2K24on September 8, 2023.
According to a statement, One Up will host a series of free online tournaments after the game launches. As a result, this partnership should provide amateur NBA 2K players with an important space to participate in competitive tournaments.
In addition, the platform will take advantage of NBA 2K’s in-game and social media promotions to help drive awareness and engagement.
At the launch, One Up CEO Brandon Pitts touted the platform as a way for players to show off their skill, while earning rewards. “At the end of the day, players want to compete to prove their skills, and now they can do it and win like the pros.”.
Pitts founded One Up in 2019, with its app Play One Up that allows players to monetize their skills in one-on-one matches or in tournaments. The statement also showed that One Up already has 750,000 registered players and has provided more than $20 million in prizes.
Explaining how the partnership came to be, Pitts pointed to a collaboration with basketball player LaMelo Ball that took place last year as a catalyst: “LaMelo Ball of the Charlotte Hornets wanted to put together a great tournament for his fans and supporters with a large amount of $25,000 in prizes and Puma ended up being the sponsor.
“These finalists got to fly in a private jet and that got 2K’s attention, so they really recognized our work through the collaboration with LaMelo. We ended up discussing how we could partner up, and those discussions ultimately led to the partnership.”.
NBA 2K is already an established esports title through the NBA 2K League. Pitts stressed that the league will continue to operate independently and separately from One Up tournaments.
2023-08-02 06:04:17
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