Why Pick'em Is Key to Blizzard's Overwatch League Strategy

Activision Blizzard's Overwatch League (OWL) is back for fifth season, and in an effort to be a hoot among viewers, it's using a common sports tool to engage with fans. The esports competition updated its Pick'em feature for the new season, which is the first to be played on Overwatch 2. Introduced in 2020, Pick'em is a bracket prediction contest offering cash prizes and in-game rewards to viewers who guess the winners of OWL's weekly slate of games. Blizzard is also integrating the feature into its mobile app. The league has also added rewards just for viewing the matches, with five league tokens earned for every hour spent on OWL platforms during live matches. OWL offered prizes last year as well, but has expanded them for 2022 with two grand prizes for its midseason and final championship tournaments. Activision Blizzard Esports director of marketing Eleanor Fortier said Pick'em doesn't draw in new fans, but it does offer motivation to existing viewers to watch the competition. OWL reached just over 121,000 viewers on the Saturday of its opening weekend, according to Esports Charts. That number is a slight increase from the over 113,000 viewers who watched at the same point last year. Driving engagement Last year's Pick'em was well received by viewers. Though she didn't share any stats, Fortier said engagement and participation rose consistently throughout last year's OWL season. The largest spike occurred around the grand finals prize near the end of the season. Attaching rewards to the viewing experience is the league's dangling carrot to attract viewers. Sean Cohen is vp of audience and analytics at esports organization NRG, which has a team in OWL: the San Francisco Shock. He said 64% of male gamers 18 to 34 in the U.S. who are playing in fantasy leagues or picking leagues say they're more likely to watch games live, according to NRG's audience research. "That's really important to us because we want to make sure that we are able to be seen by all of the Shock fans around the world," Cohen added. "The second part of this is it gives additional engagement when it comes to social media. People want to talk about it." Overwatch League saw steady growth in Pick'Em participation through last year's season. For OWL as a whole, Pick'em drives conversation on social, according to Fortier. "We do see that our audience responds to compelling prizes," she said. "It may be just from a sentiment perspective, but we see that our fans do use their busted picks and busted brackets as opportunities to talk about Pick'em in our mentions." Borrowing from the sports playbook Though Pick'em doesn't involve betting, it is betting-adjacent. There are rewards at stake, which drives interest for viewers, but there's no financial risk associated with making picks. Pick'em is similar to many sports bracket challenges, such as March Madness, that don't charge but offer a grand prize reward. It has existed in sports for some time now. The NBA has its own Pick'em system that was introduced in 2018 with similar functionality: no betting but prizes such as cash or coupons to the NBA Store. "The value of getting fans to find whatever their level of personal association and engagement is awesome," CEO of Envy Gaming Adam Rymer. "Sometimes it's tied to brand loyalty and brand relevance, like the NFL, and sometimes it's tied to [Pick'em]." Lacking sponsorship Pick'em also offers potential brand partnership or sponsorship opportunities with its sizable audience reach. During this new season, OWL doesn't have any significant corporate sponsors compared to previous years. The league lost several key sponsors last year after the state of California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued Activision Blizzard over allegations of widespread harassment and discrimination against its female employees. The list included Kellogg, Coca-Cola, State Farm and T-Mobile.