As growth industries go, it’s difficult to come up with one that appeared as suddenly and has skyrocketed as rapidly as esports. From competitive Overwatch and League of Legends play to the team-affiliated NBA 2K League, professional video gaming is going mainstream in a big way.
Esports leagues have been pulling down lucrative TV deals of late, with ESPN and Turner Broadcasting locking down early contracts with various competitive organizations. (They also have to compete with live-streaming platform Twitch, which beat virtually everyone else to the broadcasting punch.) It then stands to reason that A-list sponsors will continue to jump on the lucrative new medium, and thus Budweiser has reportedly filed for a trademark on the phrase “the official beer of esports,” per the U.S. Patent And Trademark Office’s online database.
According to pro gaming site The Esports Observer, Anheuser Busch (Budweiser’s parent company) has also filed for trademarks on “the official beer of gaming” and “the official beer of gamers.” (We thought that the official beer of gamers was that Miller Lite can-controller you can use to play the classics, but hey.) Bud Light is already an Overwatch League sponsor, and while the broader trademark remains pending as of this article’s publication, it’s an aggressive step in turning the macro-brew conglomerate into the boozy face of the next big sports industry.