Funimation will become the second anime library to focus some of their efforts into the esports marketing space by sponsoring Panda Global, the company announced today. The 22-year-old entertainment and streaming business from the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas is the second anime library to sponsor a team behind Crunchyroll.
"We're incredibly excited about working with Funimation," Panda Global chief financial officer David Wu told ESPN in a statement. "Almost everyone on the team grew up watching anime, and we think our audience loves the titles that make Funimation great so there is plenty of synergy. If I were to rate this sponsorship, it would be over 9000."
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Cruncyhroll, Funimation's competitor, entered the space several years ago when its former vice president of sales and Cloud9 owner Jack Etienne came into the industry. It currently sponsors Cloud9 and Team Liquid.
"Funimation has been active in video game culture for years -- both in licensing to game developers as well as offering anime streaming on the top consoles, said Mike DuBoise, COO of Funimation. "We're thrilled to be entering into the competitive world of esports with our sponsorship of Panda Global. We've invested heavily in streaming to expand both the reach of and accessibility to our FunimationNow anime service and the streaming-centric nature of esports aligns well with our strategic vision and our audience."
Funimation is also among the long-line of streaming companies with interest in esports. Most notably Amazon-owned Twitch has become the consensus hub for most esports streams, while other companies such as YouTube Gaminig, Azubu, Hitbox, and other smaller companies have also done business in the space.
Anime, a Japanese animated film style, is popular among gamers and the esports player base. Riot Games', the creator of League of Legends, parent company Tencent announced last fall that it would convert a manga (Japanese-style comic) about the life of a retired professional gamer titled The King's Avatar into an anime film.