Leading esports tournament organiser, BLAST Premier, and the official esports and gaming data platform, GRID Esports, have extended their exclusive data partnership. The partnership will cover all data rights for BLAST Premier tournaments in 2022.
The two industry leaders had first worked together in 2018 for BLAST PRO Copenhagen and since then have shared a vision of capitalizing on the potential of official data assets in a digital sport.
In 2022 the partnership will continue to focus on unlocking the potential of BLAST’s official data assets by empowering data-driven innovation in the CS:GO community and benefitting commercial stakeholders through a high quality data solution on GRID’s platform. Additionally, GRID will provide integrity monitoring and data security services for all BLAST Premier events.
Moritz Maurer, CEO GRID Esports commented: “The long standing cooperation between us and BLAST is a unique milestone to celebrate. Our goal at GRID is to minimize any additional data-related effort on the part of the rights holder, allowing them to focus on their core initiatives while simultaneously having their data IP leveraged to their benefit and protected from unlicensed use. BLAST was one of our first clients back in 2018 and the fact that we have been working together for so many years is proof of GRID’s long term commitment to building a mutually beneficial relationship with our partners.’’
Alexander Lewin, VP of Distribution and Programming at BLAST, said: “Extending our deal with GRID into a fourth year is true testament to the trust and impressive results this partnership has delivered to date. Real-time and comprehensive data plays a vital part in Counter-Strike for decision-making and performance analysis. GRID’s highly reliable data services offer a unique angle of digital entertainment and engagement, helping to bring our global fanbase even closer to BLAST Premier.”
Esports data has been in the spotlight over the past years, however the fragmentation of the market and multitude of unofficial sources has at times prevented it reaching its full potential. Official partnerships between tournament organisers and esports data companies are crucial for the esports industry to increase the awareness of official data source superiority by enabling access to the granular, highly detailed, stable data feeds. GRID advocates strongly for the usage of official data sources in order to assure sustainable growth of the entire industry.
