8 minute read
Iconic performance venue for a ‘new generation of fans
OVERACTIVE MEDIA PLANS TO BUILD ICONIC PERFORMANCE VENUE FOR ‘NEW GENERATION OF FANS’
Following the confirmation of OverActive Media’s highly anticipated US$500m entertainment and music venue, President and CEO Chris Overholt shares his vision to make Toronto and Canada ‘a destination of choice’ for the global esports and gaming industry.
Advertisement
Esports has become one of the biggest sports sectors in recent years, with many sources projecting that the esports ecosystem is on track to surpass US$1 billion in revenue for the first time by the end of 2021 and US$1.8 billion by 2022. Currently, the North American market is the second largest in the world, behind only the Asia-Pacific region.
Based in Canada, OverActive Media, the parent company of Toronto Defiant, Toronto Ultra, and MAD Lians, has announced plans to build a 7,000-seat esports and entertainment venue at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Canada that promises to be an unparalleled experience for fans and performance artists alike.
The venue, projected to be completed in 2025, is set to include a ‘theatre-style entertainment venue and hotel complex,’ that plans to host 200+ events a year, whilst also becoming the new ‘home’ of the company’s Call of Duty League and Overwatch League franchises.
Chris Overholt, President and CEO of OverActive Media has found himself a part of the sports industry for many years, where he has primarily operated within the traditional sporting landscape across a range of disciplines, including the likes of National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise the Toronto Raptors, National Football League (NFL) team the Miami Dolphins and the Canadian Olympic Committee, to name but a few, before manoeuvring into the esports scene.
“I was compelled by a couple of things. I would say first and foremost the ownership group I am attached to and partnered with here,” started Chris, when asked about his motivations to switch from traditional sport to the esports industry. “It’s a pretty impressive group of individuals, led by the Kimel family who are principle investors and are an incredible success story here in Canada. Sheldon Pollack, our chairman, I’ve known for many years and have worked with him previously, has an excellent reputation in this country. These are the sort of people you are going to want to be attached to generally in your career.
He added: “Perhaps as compelling was a conversation I started having with Activision Blizzard in 2016. I was approached in that time after the Rio Olympics about getting involved and I was just so struck by all of it, the capacity, the potential, the scale and so when asked whether I would be interested in getting involved with Toronto and the potential acquisition of an Overwatch franchise, it just didn’t feel like something I wanted to miss.”
A global esports and entertainment company,
OverActive Media has gone on to become one of the leading names in the industry having successfully acquired teams and participation in top esports leagues.
“We set out in Autumn 2018 with the bold ambition of setting up the Madison Square Garden of esports at our core.
“Our first task was to see if we could secure the Overwatch franchise in Toronto and we were successful in doing that and now we have managed to build a holding of assets of franchise teams in what we believe to be the biggest and most important esports leagues in the world; Call of Duty – the Toronto Ultra franchise and the Overwatch franchise – the Toronto Defiant franchise and then in Europe, we play the European League of Legends under our MAD Lions brand and in Counter Strike as part of a league we partially own with other team organisations called Flashpoint.
“Our intention was to create the premier esports offering in the world and we knew to do that, we were going to need to be bold in our ambition. “I think so far we have managed to do that. We ➡
are the only organisation in here in Toronto – the Ultra and with premium entertainment on a new perspective as we the world today that owns the Defiant – but the business acts but will also be home start talking to bigger brands franchise positions in each model is about us taking a to corporate opportunities, who are not only thinking one of those four leagues, step in the direction of being launch events around product, that they’re interested in the and we are really bullish on the Madison Square Garden. gala dinners and award shows esports space but certainly the business model that they “To be dimensional like and anything you can imagine see the potential of up to 1.2 represent. One that shares that as a business, we need that a 7,200-capacity arena million fans rolling through a revenue with us and that to be in the venue business could hold. venue like that in our future. allows us to sit inside the and we set out from early “Now one of the best “It has certainly put us on an enterprise value of those days stating that if we could entertainment markets in accelerated curve just in these leagues as they grow and find the right piece of land, if North America [Toronto], if last few weeks and it’s very develop.” we could get their ahead of not the world, this is what this exciting to be a part of.”
OverActive A part Media’s next move involves building a 7,200-seater esports and “We have statistics here in Canada that say 77 per cent of the millennial audience claim that esports is their sport of choice over traditional sports, which could also of esports’ strength came to fruition in the last 12 months entertainment venue, which be largely true across the world.” with the emergence will serve as the of the home of the Toronto Ultra and others in the market who have venue can be for this city and coronavirus pandemic, which Toronto Defiant, which is set to looked at it in the past, then this country and built with a shut down traditional sports cost US$500 million. it would be a business model posture around technology across the world, leaving their
“It is a performance opportunity for us that would and a delivery that will be fans to look at new markets venue and at the heart of its not only be about our esports second to none in the world for entertainment. The gaming business model is the ability to teams but first and foremost and in that way, we believe industry boomed throughout attract and deliver a premium driven by a leadership position that over time, it can be a the various lockdowns and experience for acts and all that we could enjoy in the magnet and hub for global with it, came an added interest of its fans that come to our entertainment space. esports competitions. in esports as it exploited its venue,” Chris explained. “Our model contemplates a “Already I can say that our digital platform where it could
“It will be the convenient total of 180 to 200 nights per partnership and marketing be played and viewed from home to our two esports teams year out of the gate and starts conversations have taken home.
“Whatever curve this industry was on, it has certainly been accelerated in the last couple of years after COVID-19,” said Chris. “We’re all living and in some cases, working from home and so in that context, it’s a captured audience and an opportunity what with it being digital in its orientation.
“Activision Blizzard, Riot Games, Valve, etc. who are all attached to these leagues, pivoted quickly and effectively so all the leagues we were due to be playing in last year, did not miss a beat. We continued playing and just carried on.
“To give an example of esports’ growth during COVID-19, League of Legends, which has been around for a very long time and is arguably the biggest esport in the world, saw its audience grow by over 75 per cent and they’re on track to be growing again.
“We have statistics here in Canada that say 77 per cent of the millennial audience claim that esports is their sport of choice over traditional sports, which could also be largely true across the world.”
Even today, esports has its doubters from within the industry who feel that it hasn’t got the capability to reach its full potential in the way that it has been forecast to do so, which Chris could not disagree with more.
“Anybody who thinks this is a faze is talking to themselves,” he exclaimed. “This has been a reality for a number of years and like many things in our lives, when it finally hits the mainstream, we all think its brand new, but this has been an industry that’s been developing for between 10 and 20 years, depending on how you define it, and now some big names in the industry are taking an interest in it from the traditional sports world.
“As I said before, this business is maturing at such a level, that our audiences are growing at rates which are eclipsing that of the NBA back in the 90s and now we’re living in a world where there are no NBA teams worth less than US$2 billion. Being a digital platform and with the marketing partnerships valuing near US$1 billion globally, this is only up and to the right.
“For anybody hearing about this for the first time, welcome, and watch this thing go. It’s going to be massive. I’m confident that this industry is going to be a next level experience for everybody that’s invested in it and we truly believe that we are building a multi-billion enterprise here every day.” ◆
