This Esports Agent Credits Career to Gaming, Not Coaching

Greg Via broke into sports marketing by helping Michael Jordan sell Gatorade. He pulled Derek Jeter, Roger Federer, Tiger Woods and Thierry Henry together to pitch Gillette razors. But one big name explains his switch from traditional sports superstars to esports personalities: Duke Nukem. “I was a closet [gamer] when I was at Gatorade: I played PC games and played Duke Nukem and tried Doom,” he said. “I just loved those games, but never had a console or any of those things growing up. When we got a computer, I said, ‘You know, I'm gonna start.’” Now as the head of partnerships at Cloud9 Esports, Via helps the gaming-oriented company and its teams “speak marketing.” But Via’s initial career interests didn’t involve esports, or even sports marketing. Running track and field at the University of Tennessee, Via admitted he was “not a very good athlete” who “hung around with very good athletes.” He befriended one of those athletes—1972 Olympic bronze medalist Bill Schmidt—and worked for him on the sports program at the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville, Tenn. That program was sponsored by canned foods giant Stokely-Van Camp, which first produced and bottled Gatorade. The company hired Schmidt to the Gatorade account and later sold the sports drink to Quaker Oats, which made Schmidt its head of sports marketing. Via, meanwhile, helped the track team at Tennessee before eventually becoming the head cross-country coach at Louisiana State University at age 26. Schmidt asked Via to join him at Gatorade, but he refused three times. "Because I was living my life: I had long hair, I wore shorts and flip-flops to work every day and was traveling the world working with track,” Via said. Until he had "an epiphany that there's two kinds of coaches: ones that have been fired and ones that are going to be fired.” He spent nine years at Gatorade working with athletes like Jordan and Woods. When he left, he spent the next six years seeking the right fit. He tried a stint at Accenture; a gig with Motorola that allowed him to work with CART racing teams and the NFL; and a job with New Era based on his network of contacts, but the role ended up limiting him to licensing and copyright work. Finally, in 2007, Via answered a LinkedIn post for a talent management position at Gillette. In the interview, the Gillette svp mentioned wanting to start a global gaming competition, but they couldn’t get Electronic Arts to answer their calls. Via made the conversation happen, and the ensuing talks not only led to a world championship in Orlando, Fla., hosted by John Cena, but it also allowed winners of EA’s Tiger Woods PGA Tour to play against the real Woods. It was P&G’s first major foray into esports, where it would later sponsor prolific gaming teams including TSM. It was also the start of a 14-year stint for Via that eventually made him global head of sports and esports marketing. When P&G shifted from a global to a regional model in 2021, eliminating Via’s position, his contacts at TSM pointed him to the brand partnership position at Cloud9. “League of Legends and Overwatch was beyond me—it's too quick, it's too involved and too team-related,” Via said. “But I saw the numbers and was like, ‘Wow, this is cool.’” Big mistake "I left Gatorade after not getting the vp job, which I thought I deserved," he recalled. "You don’t get jobs you deserve; you have to earn them." Lesson learned "If you can’t get what you need for your brand in a talent or property deal, you need to walk," Via advised. "You cannot fall in love with a talent or property." How he got the gig When his track and field mentor Bill Schmidt called him to run sports marketing at Gatorade, "I had no idea what I was doing, but Bill was patient and a wonderful boss." Pro tip "Build your network, pay attention, and learn as much as you can. You can always learn. Never think you know it all. Get the best degree you can in business, finance, law. Be nice and only be really tough when you have to."

Esports

This Esports Agent Credits Video Games—Not Coaching—for His Career

Cloud9's Greg Via ran track and field in college all the way to the boardrooms of Gatorade and P&G

Jason Notte

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Jason Notte