College football championships kick off Monday evening. Alabama's Crimson Tide is taking on the Georgia Bulldogs. Last week's semifinals achieved one of cable history's highest viewerships, and ESPN saw double digit audience growth year-over-year. ThePostGame.com Senior Editor Jeff Eisenband and FiveThirtyEight's Senior Sportswriter Neil Paine explain their expectations for the final.
"It will be something special," says Eisenband. The game kicks off at 8:00 pm ET on ESPN, who is offering the event through multiple viewing platforms. College football has been a ratings success for the network who has faced layoffs and shifted gears in 2017.
This is also the first major sports event at Atlanta's new stadium. Paine says there is a concern nationally over interest in a game that is so regional in nature.The college championship is increasingly trying to market itself as the "super bowl" of college football.
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The professional gamer and Twitch streamer told Cheddar CEO Jon Steinberg that it's hard to get fans to follow you from game to game, no matter how big your following. The 31-year-old also championed the "shenanigans" of Fortnite maker Epic Games, which allowed him to ride a rocket launched by fellow esports hero Ninja ー a combination of words that aren't typically uttered in a traditional workplace.
Fintech companies are taking notice of the rapid growth in esports, and Quicken Loans has partnered with 100 Thieves, a League of Legends expansion team. Quicken CMO Casey Hurbis said this venture opened the company's eyes to the endless possibilities of esports and its personalities.
The Twitter Esports Business Summit ran from Oct. 1-3, and it held its focus on the growing market of esports and how Twitter fits into the business. Rishi Chadha, head of gaming content partnerships at Twitter, said the company is focusing on the communities that foster players and fans, as well as publishers and developers of different platforms.
The team became the first in the NBA to introduce GIFs for the Facebook platform. Sandro Gasparro, director of social media for the Los Angeles Clippers, told Cheddar it's not just another way to promote engagement, but can also connect fans to players on a more personal level.
Ralf Reichert, CEO of ESL, sat down with Cheddar at this weekend's tournament at the Barclays Center and talked about the esports world and what he believes is needed for the enterprise to grow.
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Ron Darling, a former MLB starting pitcher and current TBS baseball analyst, said the easiest way to attract younger people to baseball is to get more kids playing it when they're kids. Darling said there are more children opting out of football due to concerns about head injuries, and those athletes should be primed to take up a different sport.
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18Birdies has seen success as a one-stop shop for golfers, both amateur and pro, gaining 1.3 million members since its launch. The app lets players book tee times, navigate a new course, and choose the right club. But CEO Eddy Lui says the main goal is to create a community ー a social network ー of golfers.
