Smooth Sailing: SailGP Announces Successful Conclusion of Maiden Esports Series and Unveils Plans for Season 2

Smooth sailing: SailGP announces successful conclusion of maiden esports series and unveils plans for Season 2 Attracts 146,000 unique players with 753,000 views By Heather McLean, Editor

Monday, November 9, 2020 - 17:31

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SailGP has concluded its maiden esports season and has announced that due to its success, it intends to repeat the performance with a second eSailGP season that will include a new digital show format.

From a pilot just one year ago, Season 1 attracted more than 146,000 unique players. In all, 55,783 individual races took place. SailGP Season 2 returns in April 2021.

Speaking to SVG Europe, SailGP head of content, Jose Garnes, says the results beat SailGP's predictions. We were really pleased with our first eSailGP season and I think it's fair to say that it exceeded our expectations. As a new championship we were starting from scratch, but we now feel like we have a really good base to build on.

We knew that people were playing the game, but we didn't expect to have the concurrent participation through the season, which shows there is the appetite to do competitive gaming throughout the year or over a season, instead of a one off event.

He adds: We also had a lot of success with our bespoke Athletes vs Gamers' events, an invitational event where established gamers could take on the SailGP athletes. We also really saw the value of integrating them into the tournaments and how the eSailing community loved competing against them and this resulted in some of our most successful content across our digital and social channels.

Competitive gaming is the future

SailGP entered the esports arena at the end of its first real life' season in 2019 in partnership with Virtual Regatta and World Sailing. Both have been key partners in the success of eSailGP in its first season, Garnes says.

The idea was to offer fans the chance to compete on one of the most innovative race boats in the world in the virtual environment. On how esports fits into the SailGP strategy overall, Garnes says: Competitive gaming is the future for any sporting league, as it is an opportunity to broaden the fanbase and also allows fans to put to the test their skills and get closer to experiencing what is really like to be a top athlete.

For SailGP it is no different. Laying foundations in esports was part of the league's strategy to broaden its fanbase and help bring sailing to a wider audience. We also wanted to showcase the incredible talent of the community who love racing competitively in SailGP boats. Competitive gaming fits into our strategy as it allows us to champion our community, build interest in SailGP and convert gaming fans to live sports fans and vice versa.

He goes on: It is important as it allows us to introduce our sport to new fans and help educate them in the global league. Sailing can be difficult to explain if you haven't had a first-hand experience on a boat, but gaming allows us to give everyone the opportunity to sail a boat in a virtual environment and helps to bring a new audience into the sport. It also helps to educate them on the sport and really show how fast and exciting our revolutionary catamarans are and how close the racing is. Finally, it also allows us to tap into a dedicated community who we can convert into SailGP fans.

Accelerated esports entry

The pandemic sped up SailGP's esports efforts, Garnes admits. The pandemic has accelerated our intentions to be involved in competitive gaming, and really proven the opportunity. It has also shown that when people cannot go out sailing due to COVID-19 restrictions or attend events, they turn to their devices to either compete within the game or be entertained by watching some of the best players race against each other.

He adds: We know that people were already playing before the pandemic, but it has helped us identify this area as an opportunity to share our story and passion for the sport, and also really look at how we bring the content to life in a really engaging way.

As to what SailGP has learned from Season 1, Garnes comments: We have learned that there is a clear appetite and fan base that this content appeals too, whether they are participating in or watching eSailGP. A lot of our data shows that the participants are not necessarily sailing fans or fans of SailGP, so this gives us the opportunity to educate new fans about the sport - and hopefully convert some gaming fans to live sports fans and vice versa - as well as tap into a really engaged audience and existing community.

There are some extremely talented players who are competing throughout the year in community-led tournaments and so there is an opportunity for us to serve those fans and convert them into SailGP ambassadors within their community. We have also learnt the importance of integrating our athletes into esports and seen great viewership of our social content when we do this, says Garnes. He adds: eSailGP is also another way to keep the conversation going throughout the season and bring engaging content to fans in-between our live race weekends.

New look for Season 2

Following the success of the inaugural season, SailGP has been working on the further development and evolution of the platform for Season 2, including the presentation of the digital shows; it has been working on this in collaboration with Engage Digital Partners.

Notes Garnes: We have also been using this time, during our sports hiatus, to fully understand the esports landscape and gain detailed insights into the industry. This is something we did in consultation with Strive Sponsorship.

We are working with Engage Digital Partners as our production team. They have been working in this space with Grand Tourismo in the past few years creating the global racing league. One of the things we have been wor

LINK:	https://www.svgeurope.org/blog/headlines/sailgp-announces-successful-c...
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