YouTube paid Activision Blizzard close to $160M for OWL, CDL for three years

The Esports Observer, citing sources familiar with the negotiations and contracts, states that the YouTube deal with Activision Blizzard to have Overwatch League, Call of Duty League, Hearthstone esports be exclusively streamed on YouTube is valued at $160M for three year deal.

Activision Blizzard announced prior to the start of the Call of Duty League that YouTube would be the exclusive streaming partner for the stream.

The Esports Observer reports that the OWL was the majority value of the deal, and CDL was lesser with Hearthstone behind it.

The report states that Overwatch League was worth a significant amount with Call of Duty League not that far behind. Esports Observer claims Activision Blizzard “threw in” Hearthstone esports as part of this deal.

The site states that the deal has a significant advantage for teams and league as it has money incentives for reaching certain targets, something which the original Overwatch League x Twitch deal did not. That was valued at $90M. The targets include ad sales and viewership numbers.

The deal was a partnership between Google and Activision Blizzard and also includes Google Cloud as the server provider for Activision Blizzard games.

SOURCE: Esports Observer