GRID announced as official data partner for Esports World Cup, here’s what it means

Esports data platform GRID has become the latest company to join the Esports World Cup in an official capacity, aiming to provide the massive annual esports event with new content, data infrastructure, and commercial opportunities to increase its worldwide engagement potential.

The Esports World Cup is currently underway. A seven-week event in Saudi Arabia that features dozens of esports titles and hundreds of competitors competing for a total prize pool of over $70 million, the EWC has quickly become one of the tent-pole events on the competitive gaming calendar. GRID’s infrastructure will support the event’s data ecosystem, which includes gathering live in-game data feeds for certain titles including such popular games as LoL and VALORANT.

Through this data and related content, GRID will help to better support fan-focused engagement at the Esports World Cup, notably including its fantasy league. This Pick’Em-style activity lets fans draft teams in various games and predict tournament results standings. A leaderboard tracks which fans have made the most accurate predictions throughout different tournaments and for the entire event, allowing fans to interact with the event as a whole in brand new ways.

In addition to fantasy play, this sort of data could also be of great use to fans interested in esports betting, allowing bettors to feel even more confident in their picks. Given the popularity of included games like Counter-Strike 2 and the aforementioned League of Legends, this could be a real game-changer.

“The Esports World Cup is a monumental step for our industry, bringing together an unprecedented number of competitive titles, global fans, and media partners,” GRID’s chief procurement officer Charlie Hanley-Nickolls said. “An event of this scale calls for a reliable, fast, scalable data solution that our technology is well-equipped to deliver for EWC, its partners, and fans.”

GRID and Bayes team up for Esports World Cup collaboration

GRID is no stranger to turning esports data into engagement opportunities for fans and bettors alike. The company’s live tracking, player stat mapping, and broadcast features have been used by Riot Games, BLAST, Ubisoft, and KRAFTON. The Esports World Cup is a totally different beast however, with multiple titles seeing play all at once over the course of the entire summer. It’s a truly massive undertaking by any measure.

GRID

To tackle the massive Esports World Cup event, GRID has partnered with Bayes Esports, another esports data company focused on gathering the latest statistics from tournaments. This combination arguably elevates EWC to an unrivaled position in its ability to track and process data from its games, then convert that data into opportunities to better engage fans and followers of the event and its myriad opportunities. And that’s before even considering the sheer number of games involved in the event, which stands in stark contrast to most esports events that host tournaments for only one game at a time.

“Partnering with GRID or the Esports World Cup marks a pivotal moment in our industry, bringing together the two leading data providers. We want to unite our strengths and tackle integrity and grey market issues.” Bayes Esports’ Co-CEO and managing director Amir Mirzaee said. “Jointly, the companies can expand on the individual successes of the companies and build an overwhelmingly powerful service portfolio.”

While the Esports World Cup has endured its fair share of criticism since its formation, there is no denying how massive the event has quickly become for pro players, esports teams, and the industry’s legion of fans. The millions of dollars that are being put on the line have made it a go-to event for esports organizations and it’s likely to continue in that vein moving forward. This partnership between the Esports World Cup and GRID is just one more indicator of that continuing growth track.