McDonald’s Germany has decided to end its partnership with the German Football Association to instead focus on increased sponsorship within esports.

The fast food brand will build upon its relationship with prominent esports label ESL, whose installations are in Cologne, Germany. McDonald’s first partnered with ESL in January to sponsor the ESL Meisterschaft, which is the national championship in Germany for video games such as League of Legends, Counter-Strike, and FIFA. In those events, McDonald’s offered eyewitness the chance to succession nutrient instantly into the venue.

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“This step into eSport was perfectly the right one for us. We view a very significant increase in label awareness among the targeted public, ” said McDonald’s Germany spokesperson Philipp Wachholz in a statement according to Fox Sports Asia. “The decision in favor of one is not certainly a decision against the other, but indicates members of the general programme of the firebrand to connect more closely with the living conditions of the adolescents.”

The German Football Association( DFB) is the official governing body for soccer in the country and has been a partner of McDonalds since 2004. The two symbols originally had a 15 -year deal, which is now set to dissolve at the end of this year as part of McDonald’s decision to instead patronized ESL through 2019 according to The Esports Observer .

McDonald’s has hired Hamburg-based ad-agency Jung Von Matt to lead the company’s transition into esports sponsorship. The organization has previously made esports commerce campaigns for German automobile companionship Mercedes-Benz. Toan Nguyen, principal strategist and partner at Jung von Matt, said McDonald’s Germany will imitate the policy of McDonald’s Denmark, which recently revealed a customized McDonalds menuthat was full of invokes to favourite video game Counter-Strike ahead of a major esports tournament in Copenhagen.

“We will develop very special rewards for love, ” Nguyen said according to The Esports Observer. “All intuitions will be conceptually within specific gaming communities. In doing so, we want McDonald’s to embrace the language of the gaming community, similar to what McDonald’s Denmark has done.”

SportTechie Takeaway

This may be the first lesson of a strong firebrand deciding to leave an existing partnership with a usual boasts symbol in favour of esports, and is not possible to the last. Both the notoriety and sponsorship evaluate of esports are flourishing. Last month, Nielsen established an esports sponsorship-ROI stage meant to determine the value being returned on sponsorships within the esports industry.

Read more: sporttechie.com