Italian apparel brand Kappa signed a title sponsorship deal with Chinese Esports organization Royal Never Give-Up’s (RNG) Dota 2 squad.
The RNG Dota 2 squad is now rebranded as Kappa RNG Dota 2. The changes coming into effect from January 1,2020. The partnership with Li-Ning, the Chinese apparel brand. The previous title sponsor of the squad was not renewed and hence lead to the expiration of the deal.
Kappa announced the deal on Jan 1 on Chinese social media Weibo. To make people aware of the deal and get them excited. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed during the announcement and are still unknown.
The deal starts could be the first one of its nature in the esports scene for 2020. Li-Ning time as a sponsor seems to have ended as its name was not included in the team’s sponsor list.
The RNG Dota2 squad currently has five sponsors up its sleeves including Kappa, Laoshan Beer, Hongmo, Logitech and Citic’s Bank credit card service.
This will be Kappa’s second partnership in esports, the previous one being with Vexed Gaming Counter Strike:GLobal Offensive team. Under the deal, competitive and leisure wear of the squad will be available at the team’s official store.
The deal follows the growing popularity of esports among top brands. In October 2018, Nike cracked a deal with RNG’s League of Legend player Jian “Uzi” Zhao. Nike make him appear for the promotion of a television series starring NBA icon Lebron James. Though the deal was a one off event , it was a significant step of top apparel brands sponsoring popular Esports players.
Recently , Adidas partnered with Fortnite’s most popular player and streamer “Ninja” to release a limited edition of sneakers designed for fans of Fortnite and “Ninja”.
With the year starting off a such a good note. Esports fans around the world seem to be excited and hopeful for the year ahead.
