Rooter bags media rights deal for Skyesports

Skyesports is the biggest esports tournament organizer in South Asia that conducts competitions under its self-owned IPs.

Rooter, the largest Indian game streaming platform, announced today that it had acquired the media rights for all of Skyesports’ IPs in one of the largest media rights deals in esports, for next one year. Skyesports is the biggest esports tournament organizer in South Asia that conducts competitions under its self-owned IPs.

Moving forward, all of Skyesports’ original competitions will be broadcasted exclusively on Rooter. Keeping in line with Skyesports’ and Rooter’s aim of making esports and game streaming as accessible as possible, the tournaments will be streamed in several languages which include Hindi, English, Tamil, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, and Telugu. Viewers who tune into Skyesports’ competitions on Rooter will also be given some exclusive rewards.

Rooter, which is commonly labeled as the ‘Twitch of India,’ already has a substantial user base in the country with more than 35 million downloads on the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store. This deal will enable the platform to further tap into the esports market by leveraging Skyespots’ large viewer base. Last year, Skyesports generated more than 200 million viewers across all its tournaments and achieved a peak concurrent viewership record of 221,000 during the Skyesports Championship 3.0 BGMI Finals.

Rooter will also be producing additional content based on Skyesports’ IPs throughout the year to offer more entertainment to fans.

Commenting on this strategic agreement, Dipesh Agarwal, Co-Founder and COO, Rooter, said, “Skyesports is renowned for hosting some of the major esports tournaments in the country. Teaming up with a platform redefining Indian esports, this comes as a landmark deal for both entities. Rooter is the fastest growing gaming platform in India and we will help Skyesports reach millions of fans who will get the best esports content exclusively on Rooter. We also look forward to working with Shiva and the rest of the team to provide multiple engagement opportunities for fans with esports teams on Rooter’s platform.”

Speaking on the deal, Shiva Nandy, founder and CEO, Skyesports said: "Our goal has always been to make Skyesports' IPs, which have been homegrown in India, more accessible. I am sure that our esports content will feel right at home on Rooter's platform. Additionally, by distributing the media rights, we are empowering Rooter to implement strategies to further engage our already large audience. We look forward to closely working with them throughout the year to enhance the watching experience for the viewers while building esports from the grassroots level and launching more premium IPs.”

Rajan Navani, founder and CEO, JetSynthesys said, "With Skyesports, we envisioned the creation of a closely-knit esports ecosystem at the grassroots level. It’s a pleasure to have Rooter join us as a partner and we look forward to working together with them to be able to accelerate our growth in terms of viewership in India.”