In January 2018, Twitch announced that it had signed a two-year deal with Activision to become the "exclusive global third-party provider" of Overwatch League live streams in all regions outside of China. With the expiration of that agreement, Activision today announced that all of Activision's professional esports leagues and events, including Overwatch League, Call of Duty League, Hearthstone esports, and World of Warcraft esports announced that it has signed a new multi-year agreement with YouTube for exclusive live streaming rights. [Pete Vlastelica, CEO of Activision Blizzard Esports, said, "This is an exciting year for Activision Blizzard Esports. [It is our mission to celebrate our superstar athletes by providing quality competitive entertainment for fans to follow around the world, both live and on-demand. This partnership will help us deliver on that promise at a new level by combining our passionate community of fans and athletes with YouTube's powerful content platform and exciting history of supporting next-generation entertainment."

Along with "premium network quality of service," the agreement will enable Activision to "leverage Google Cloud's AI tools to provide curated recommendations for in-game offers and differentiated gaming experiences," He stated.

"We have worked closely with Activision Blizzard on mobile titles over the past few years to improve their analytics capabilities and overall player experience," said Sunil Rayan, head of gaming at Google Cloud, "We are now expanding our relationship and and are pleased to support one of the largest and most renowned game developers in the world."

The deal is a major win for YouTube, which despite launching competing platform YouTube Gaming in 2015, has failed to make significant inroads against Twitch's dominance in live streaming. More recently, both Mixer and Facebook have made significant pushes of their own, further intensifying competition in this area. A partnership with Activision would greatly enhance YouTube's presence as a live streaming platform and differentiate it from other platforms.

"Much of the focus in the live streaming wars has been on the individual content creators being contracted, as they represent the majority of content in this space," said Doron Nir, CEO of StreamElements. 'However, esports events are often the biggest viewership contributors, as the two most watched channels on Twitch in 2019 were Riot Games and Overwatch League. Therefore, YouTube Gaming's announcement of three notable leagues is an important move in terms of building its content portfolio and demonstrating its commitment to the market."

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but SportsBusiness Journal reported in 2018 that the two-year deal between Activision and Twitch is worth $90 million, so we're not talking pennies here. The first event to be live-streamed under the new agreement actually took place today at the kickoff of the new Call of Duty League season. The Overwatch League's 2020 season kicks off on February 8 with an interesting event for us.