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.
The blockchain has made its way into a slew of industries. Next at bat ー the sports world. The Los Angeles Dodgers are moving away from traditional promotions and have begun using crypto tokens to give away digital bobbleheads to fans. Ralph Esquibel, VP of information technology for the team, said this is the first giveaway of its kind and could lead to more experiments with cryptocurrencies.
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Naz Aletaha, head of esports partnerships for Riot Games, said that the "priceless" experiences with new global sponsor Mastercard will start with the world championships in October, offering premium content and behind the scenes access to the biggest event for esports lovers.
Mastercard, seeing a market opening in the skyrocketing popularity of esports, signed a deal to become first global sponsor for Riot Games' "League of Legends." Raja Rajamannar, chief marketing and communications officer for Mastercard, said the company will become exclusive payment service provider for the game. The deal represents the largest mainstream sponsorship thus far in the esports world.
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As the online gaming world continues to boom, professional sports organizations are working to marry the online and physical sports world. Hugh Weber, president of the New Jersey Devils, said that there is a way for live esports events to be compelling enough to translate to ticket sales.
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Chris Raybon, senior editor at The Action Network, breaks down the best bets for sports fans heading into Week 2 of the NFL Season.
The company's recent growth on the back of a newly invigorated gaming segment is only the beginning, according to president and CEO Bracken Darrell. He said in an interview on Cheddar that esports could become "the biggest sport in the world," and Logitech will be there as its top hardware provider.
If you had any lingering doubts that eSports had gone mainstream, they would have been erased when the North American League of Legends Summer Split took over the Oracle Arena ー home to the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors. Cheddar was there for the last stop before the World Championships in South Korea next month.
