ESPN and the NBA 2K League will be partnering to broadcast the league's matches on the ESPN2 channel as well as other ESPN platforms, the network announced recently. Separately, Sportsnet, a Canadian sports network, revealed their own partnership with the NBA 2K League as well.
The NBA 2K League recently began its third season with twenty-three teams competing remotely, in a five-on-five, best-0f-three format. Teams are represented by their actual NBA counterparts. Each of the five players on a team control their own unique characters and play their own positions. The league's new deals with ESPN and Sportsnet mark the first linear airing of NBA 2K matches in both Canada and the United States.
The league will have weekly games, played on Tuesdays through Fridays at 7 p.m. Matches on Tuesdays will air on ESPN2, Sportsnet ONE, and Sportsnet NOW. The NBA 2K matches on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays will air on the ESPN app and ESPN.com throughout the duration of the season. Broadcast details for matches after May 26th will be announced at a later date.
Since the matches are best-of-three with multiple teams playing simultaneously, the broadcast will switch between the different matches in real time, showing fans the most exciting moments from each one. This is great news for fans who want to see as much action as possible, but may be a little disappointing for people who just wanted to follow their team.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, ESPN has been broadcasting multiple esports events as traditional sports stay on pause. "ESPN Esports Day" was on April 5th, airing twelve hours of esports coverage. The League of Legends Championship Series spring playoffs and finals were aired by the network as well.
These deals are a win-win-win situation for ESPN, Sportsnet and the NBA 2k League. The league now has the perfect opportunity to get their games to new set of eyeballs and to market themselves to a whole different audience. While traditional sports are on haitus, esports have done a fine job filling in the gap for the different broadcast networks looking for content.