China Media Group, Esports World Cup Foundation and VSPO have signed a strategic cooperation agreement on Friday as the new China Media Group National Institute for Esports Development kicked off in Beijing.

China Media Group (CMG), which operates state television networks including CCTV, formally unveiled the new CMG National Institute for Esports Development on Friday. The Institute then signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Esports World Cup Federation and VSPO during the establishment ceremony, vowing to jointly organise and participate in future esports events.

The establishment ceremony was attended by Shen Haixiong, vice minister of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and president of CMG, Sun Shuo, CPC Secretary of Xicheng District and Xue Jijun, head of the institute, among other government officials.

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The three organisations have been long-time advocates for the healthy development of the esports industry. VSPO already works with the Esports World Cup Foundation in organising the inaugural Esports World Cup, an eight-week mega event currently underway in Riyadh with a record-breaking prize pool of more than $60 million.

“It’s a huge honor to be a strategic partner with the Chinese Media Group and the Esports World Cup Foundation with the establishment of the CMG National Institute for Esports Development, which marks another key sign of Beijing’s support for esports development,” Chairman of VSPO, Asia’s biggest esports operator, Dino Ying said.

OG Esports has partnered with esports betting brand PARI in a deal which aims to enhance the customer experience.

OG Esports, also known as OG, is a professional esports organisation based in Europe. The new collaboration has promised to bring exclusive content, exciting events, as well as unique opportunities.

Sujoy Roy, Head of Partnerships at OG Esports, said: “Partnering with PARI is an incredible opportunity. Their forward-thinking approach matches our vision of delivering unparalleled experiences to our fans. We’re excited to bring fresh and exciting opportunities to the esports scene.”

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Sergey Glamazda, CEO of PARI Esports, said: “We are thrilled to partner with OG, the legendary international team and two-time winner of The International! OG consistently surprises and performs at a high level across all esports titles. It is a great honor to collaborate with an organization led by Ceb and N0tail!”

Esports odds provider Abios and data provider Bayes Esports have signed an extension to their data partnership, which will enable Abios to continue utilising official real-time data in Counter-Strike and Dota 2 to power its odds feeds and engagement features for partners within and beyond the Kambi network.

Through Bayes Esports, Abios will gain access to official real-time data feeds from several high-tier tournaments in Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2. These encompass some of the most-watched competitions in the world, including BLAST Pro Series, ESL Pro League and IEM Katowice in Counter-Strike, and ESL One in Dota 2. Counter-Strike 2 accounts for over 50% of total esports betting turnover among Kambi operators, with the ESL Pro League driving 13% of esports turnover in Q2 2024.

Abios ensures higher uptime and more accurate pricing thanks to the highly granular data from Bayes Esports which they get directly from the IP rights holders. With an automated odds feed covering more than 60 market types and engagement features such as bet builder, player props and instant markets, Abios will utilise this to increase the reliability, accuracy and availability of its markets. Bayes Live Match Data also allows Abios to create scoreboards, enhancing the overall betting experience for its end users.

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Anton Janér, Managing Director and Founder of Abios, said: “With a heritage in esports data, we’ve always worked with data providers and tournament organisers at different levels to obtain data directly from the source. Not only does it give back revenue to the ecosystem, but the refresh rates and granularity server data provide allow us to offer more accurate and reliable markets to our partners.

“As such, we’re excited to continue our partnership and deliver markets in Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 built on top of data delivered by Bayes Esports.”

“We’re excited to continue our partnership with the team at Abios Kambi, who have been trailblazing in all things esports data products for over 10 years now,” says Amir Mirzaee, Co-CEO and Managing Director of Bayes Esports. “The extension is testament to the complete alignment between the teams in terms of producing industry leading user experience, and we’re proud to be delivering the industry leading data solutions for CS2 and Dota 2.”