ESL renews agreement with DouYu

Esports tournament organizer and production company ESL have partnered with DreamHack to renew their media rights contract with Chinese streaming service DouYu for another year.

As a result of the renewal of the agreement, DouYu was granted exclusive rights to broadcast the ESL Pro Tour on CS: GO, StarCraft II and Warcraft III, as well as to all ESL Dota 2 and ESL Mobile competitions. The contract covers basic Mandarin and other Chinese languages and dialects.

According to a press release, the deal reportedly includes the sub-licensing rights to the streaming and video platforms Huya and bilibili. In addition, the partnership agreement will also include championships sponsored by DreamHack.

Huya previously owned the ESL Pro Tour CS: GO media rights package and the Dota 2 series of events, but now all ESL and DreamHack esports championships will be available for viewing on DouYu.

Note that DouYu's previous agreement, signed last year, granted the streaming service exclusive rights to broadcast ESL StarCraft II Pro Tour and ESL Warcraft III Pro Tour in Standard Mandarin and other Chinese languages and dialects.

The news of ESL's contract renewal comes after ESL renewed its media rights deal with Scandinavian telecommunications firm Telia in February. What's more, it was reported earlier this month that Bilibili Esports had signed an exclusive contract with Activision Blizzard to broadcast the Overwatch League (OWL).