By Florence Lloyd-Hughes  

Metta Sport, the New York-based sports marketing agency, has been appointed to manage the commercial remit of Girl Gamer, the all-female eSports event in Lisbon, Portugal.

The agency will handle all aspects of content distribution for Girl Gamer, including the live rights and highlights for the event as part of a deal with event organiser Grow uP eSports. 

Documentary content and an event recap show will also be available for distribution.

Metta Sport’s role also comprises managing sponsorship and brand partnerships for Girl Gamer. 

Sephora, the France-based cosmetics company, has already signed up as sponsor, marking its first venture into eSports.

The brand will receive multiple activation opportunities during the event, with product giveaways, backstage branding and social media content all expected to feature.

In a statement, Dave Smith, managing director of Metta Sport, said: “Metta Sport works with major esports teams, events and rights owners around the world including ESL, DreamHack, Beyond the Summit and more. We believe Girl Gamer is on a similar professional level in terms of intense competition, production value and importance to the esports community. We are thrilled to be partnered with Girl Gamer 2018 to help drive media rights distribution and brand partnerships."

The Girl Gamer Esports Festival will feature an eSports business conference and competitions for the video games Counter Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends.

It is taking place at Casino Estoril in Lisbon, Portugal from 20 to 22 July. 

Metta Sport was one of the original eSports media rights agencies, as it started distributing events in 2014, and will have around 50 professional tournaments on its books this year.

Last September, the agency exclusively distributed media rights to Girl Gamer, one of the largest female-focused eSports tournaments featuring international teams squaring off in both League of Legends and CS:GO, which took place in Macau.

In 2017, Metta Sport also distributed rights to Beyond the Summit from Los Angeles, the Epicenter in Moscow and the World Cyber Arena Grand Final in Yinchuan.

Away from eSports, Metta Sport is particularly well-known in US college sport, where it distributes global rights, outside USA and China, to the Pac-12 and last year struck a deal with the National Collegiate Athletic Association and US rights-holders CBS and Turner Digital to distribute digital highlights of college basketball's popular March Madness tournament.

Sportcal