Gaming marketing and gametech company Livewire has partnered with VADR Media’s Checkmate, an online competitive chess platform with 700 million players.
Livewire will act as part of Checkmate’s commercial arm to represent its online and broadcast assets to brands and agencies, and will enable Checkmate to leverage its proprietary game-tech stack to create programmatic in-game advertising.
Following pandemic lockdowns and the release of Netflix’s hit mini-series ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ (2020), the popularity of chess has increased significantly, particularly amongst females.
Livewire co-founders and co-CEOs Brad Manuel and Indy Khabra said: “The Livewire team is thrilled to partner with VADR Media and Checkmate. They have an established track record of bringing new media to market, from pay-per-view to esports, sports and esports governance and successfully driving audience growth.
"Checkmate’s platform and broadcast capability paired with Livewire's gametech offering and industry expertise will be a gamechanger for brands, adding to our already broad inventory offering.”
Checkmate is a new VADR Media initiative and a skills based platform that allows users to compete to win cash, credits, crypto and in-kind rewards. It marks VADR Media’s second major play in the gaming and esports space, following on from its recent exit from Let’s Play Live [LPL], Australasia’s largest linear and online esports broadcaster and platform, which it founded in 2016.
VADR Managing Director, John McRae said: “LPL was a great stepping stone to Checkmate following on from our market first pay-per-view and linear sports and music events.
"We built the region's first dedicated direct-to-TV, and online esports broadcast studio and partnered with major networks and media outlets to grow esports in Australia and New Zealand."
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