BMW has ‘heavily’ reduced its investments in esports team sponsorships, according to sources, with some partnered teams no longer displaying the German car manufacturer’s logo on their jerseys.
Update: As of January 2023, BMW has confirmed the news.
A Digiday report by Alexander Lee quoted BMW spokesperson Torsten Julich, who said: “BMW has decided to end its esport[s] engagement from [the beginning] of 2023 on. In the future, our focus will be even more on the individual than before.”
BMW had previously dabbled in esports before increasing its activities substantially in 2020, partnering with Fnatic, G2, Cloud9, T1 and FunPlus Phoenix. BMW also began sponsoring OG in 2021.
While the BMW logo is still on some of the jerseys available in those orgs’ online shopping sites, it’s missing from some jerseys in roster announcements like Fnatic 2023 LEC roster announcement, which saw Rekkles return to the side. Though, the logo is visible on parts of the building, as Fnatic opened their Berlin facility with BMW.
It’s not on Fnatic’s new jersey announcement for 2023, nor is it alongside other sponsor logos at the bottom of the Fnatic website.
However, it’s worth mentioning the logo hasn’t always been a part of some esports jerseys, like some of T1’s (though it is on the shoulder of the general 2022 T1 jersey). Some orgs have slightly different jerseys for their different teams.
The BMW logo is also no longer on OG’s jerseys on the org’s merch site either.
However, it’s still on the G2 jersey in a recent Valorant video, it’s still on FPX’s jerseys in this post on Twitter and it’s still being displayed on the Cloud9 Twitter banner and recent posts displaying C9 jerseys. This could change moving further into 2023.
Update: As of January 5th 2023, the BMW logo is no longer on the G2 jersey, though it is still on the G2 website in the org’s list of partners.
Freelance journalist/writer Billy Studholme also pointed out that the @BMWEsports Twitter account is now private.
BMW had a cross-org campaign known as ‘United in Rivalry’, where BMW focused on the rivalries between the six orgs, their differences and the competition between them.
BMW often produced content with orgs too and individual campaigns, such as Fnatic and BMW’s Drive is the Difference’ campaign to improve mental wellbeing of pro esports players.
Sources have said BMW is starting to reduce its esports sponsorships, and another said BMW is is anticipating a recession so is pulling out of some promotional aspects, with esports being among the first industry from them to move back from.
Esports in a tough spot?
Sponsorships make up the bulk of revenues for esports organisations, so if a brand like BMW scales back, this will no doubt have an impact.
Esports is in a bit of a tough spot right now. There have been a series of exits from esports that paints a bleak picture of the industry moving into 2023.
Some businesses in esports that have recently closed include Finest, Juked and Jaxon, as well as UK organisations like Lucent, Rix and X7 (who ceased operations this week), with several citing a difficult economic climate for their withdrawals.
Earlier this year, the likes of media businesses Inven Global, Upcomer and G4 also cut back.
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.
