ONE Championship launches ONE eSports; Demetrious Johnson to serve as Chief Brand Ambassador

ONE Championship is officially joining the competitive gaming world.

On Wednesday, the fight promotion announced it had partnered with Dentsu Inc., the world’s largest advertising agency brand, to launch ONE eSports.

“It is with great excitement that I announce ONE eSports, Asia’s largest global eSports Championship Series,” stated ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong in a press release. “We see a natural crossover between martial arts and gaming fans in Asia and an opportunity to bring them together under Asia’s home of millennial live sports.

“ONE Championship is committed to bringing its same brand of large-scale event production and live broadcast capabilities, unique world-class content production, global media distribution, storytelling expertise, and marketing experience to ONE eSports. Our mission is to celebrate Asia’s eSports heroes on the global stage. The establishment of ONE eSports transforms ONE Championship into Asia’s largest producer of millennial sports content.”

According to the press release, ONE Championship will invest up $50 million, alongside other key partners, into their newest venture. In addition, ONE eSports will broadcast live events, documentaries, reality shows, weekly magazine shows, highlights, video blogs and other unique content in over 130 countries.

Former UFC flyweight champion turned ONE Championship fighter Demetrious Johnson is also expected to help spearhead the project’s efforts as its Chief Brand Ambassador.

Johnson, one of the more prominent gamers in the fight world, was previously traded from the UFC for former ONE Championship welterweight kingpin Ben Askren earlier this month.

While the exact dates and locations of the eSport events have yet to be announce, ONE Championship has already announced a 30-event fight schedule for 2019, featuring events in cities such as Singapore, Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul. ONE eSports is expected piggyback off this schedule in select cities.