Arsenal Football Club’s majority shareholder Stan Kroenke has made an investment in esports.
He’s become the second to buy an Overwatch League spot in Los Angeles, along with his son Josh Kroenke.
The Kroenkes have several investments in sport under the Kroenke Sport and Entertainment holding company, including the likes of the LA Rams, Denver Nuggets and three Colorado sides.
Stan has come under fire from Arsenal fans of late for launching hunting channel My Outdoor TV, and has since been forced to remove bloodsports content from the channel. A #StandAgainstStan protest will take place at the Emirates Stadium this week by some Arsenal fans during their first game of the season against Leicester City.
Blizzard said in a statement: “Known as international leaders in the sports industry, Stan and Josh Kroenke own professional teams, stadiums, and media holdings around the world. We’re very happy to be able to rely on their deep expertise in sports as work on the Overwatch League continues at full speed.”
Josh Kroenke added: “We’re going to build a great team for Los Angeles that inspires fans near and far.”
Blizzard has also announced that North American-based esports organisation Cloud9 has taken the London Overwatch League slot, and will be invested in reaching out to esports fans in the UK.
“We are excited that they are building a team based in the United Kingdom and becoming the first team to represent Europe’s unique community in a truly global league,” Blizzard added.
Jack Etienne, founder and CEO of Cloud9, commented: “We are thrilled that Cloud9’s formidable fanbase throughout Europe and the UK now has a local team to call their own.”
Etienne also said, as reported by Forbes: “We have a massive fan-base in Europe already, and London, in particular, I believe is under-served and doesn’t have an esports team to call its own.
“There is a large entry fee to get into this, but what made it a lot more attractive to me was when I found out I could secure London. It really expands to all of England. For ticket sales and local sponsorships, I’m going to be able to tap a really unique and large area where there’s no competition in reaching these folks, whereas all the North American teams will be competing for the same sponsorships and fans to show up to events.”
This means there are now nine teams in the Overwatch League, a new franchise where team slots are rumoured to cost around $20m.
Cloud9 and the Kroenkes join teams from Boston, Los Angeles, Miami-Orlando, New York, San Francisco, Seoul and Shanghai.
Overwatch League teams can currently sign players, up until the player signing window closes at the end of October.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
