In January, State Farm became the first sponsor of the reconstituted North American League Championship Series, run by Riot Games. Then in March, it signed up for the fifth season of the Rocket League Championship Series, run by Psyonix.

In the NBA 2K League deal, State Farm got virtual courtside signage during the next two regular-season tournaments and the NBA 2K League finals in August. It also used presenting rights to pregame segments on the Twitch broadcasts called “Game Mode,” which featured players sharing strategy and insights from their games. The videos were distributed on league social channels and on a weekly feature at nba2kleague.com.

With respect to engagement, in its first two weeks, 2K League viewership on Twitch peaked at 13,703 on its May 1 opening night, then gradually fell off into the high four figures by the finals of the tipoff tournament and the first week of regular play, according to The Esports Observer Audience Insights.

 By comparison, peak daily viewership during Overwatch League action ranged from 126,000 to 203,000 in the same window.

State Farms Goes Deeper

It is not common for non-endemic brands to sign league level deals with 3 major Esports properties. State Farm has now become the first NBA partner that has signed a separate deal with the new game called NBA 2K League.

This relationship has gone forward to reunite ReKTGlobal CEO Dave Bialek (No.9 SBJ “Forty under Forty” honoree) with State Farm. Bialek was the one to bring forward the idea of buying the advertising spaces of basketball hoop stanchions to State Farm in the year 2000.

This deal was targeted by Sate Farm because of their dominant position in Esports. Bialek was quoted to say that they were in the process of negotiations with other properties, teams and leagues, in order to make a meaningful position in the market for State Farm.

Pioneering into Esports

The State Farm Advertising Director Ed Gold said that he was deep into assessing the industry in order to extend the insurance service exposure to younger viewers. This was the case in 2017 when Bialek was an entrepreneur who teamed with Amish Shah as founders of ReKT. An interesting detail is that for this venture, they were backed by the Mets co-owner Fred Wilpon’s Fund.

Wilpon and ReKTGlobal were both involved in the negotiations of the Riot deal. With respect to this, Gold said,” We are definitely at a tipping point of seeing more brands get involved in Esports, but again this is an audience that is not used to having brands that involved, and we obviously want to make sure, once we get involved, we get it right.”

One other prominent quote from Gold with respect to the deal illustrated that there will only be one chance to make a first impression with the venture. In this Riot deal, State Farm has branding rights to the analyst desk during broadcasts and will also be sponsoring a series of content in the future.