SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
International betting and gaming operator 1xBet has signed a title partnership deal with Ukraine-based esports team NAVI for 2020.
1xBet has confirmed that it will support NAVI in various esports disciplines across the year through a number of “powerful marketing activities”. It will also serve as the title sponsor on the NAVI website and for all of the team’s merchandise.
Having started out in 2009 as a CS:GO team called Natus Vincere, taken from the Latin for ‘born to win’, the team has gone on to become a leading multi-game esports organisation.
The abbreviation NAVI was initially borrowed from the film Avatar, before being officially revealed after a competition between the team’s fans to decide a new name.
A representative for 1xBet said: “1xBet has been focusing on supporting esports for many years, which is one of the fastest growing betting industries. Competitions in various disciplines daily attract the attention of hundreds of thousands of fans from around the world.
“We really like this dynamic field of interest and 1xBet was attracted by the idea of cooperation with an esports organization known throughout the world.
“The full name of the team Natus Vincere means ‘born to win’. This perfectly describes our audience – players who bet on esports and other sports with 1xBet every day.”
To demonstrate the importance of esports to the 1xBet business, we learned early last year that the number of users betting on esports had increased by almost 350% in 2018 when compared with the corresponding period of 2017. The operator’s esports section has since enjoyed another 200% boost in 2019 against the 12-month period for 2018.
