JAY-Z’s Roc Nation Sports and GameSquare Partner Up To Take On The Esports World

August 19, 2021 Papa Dom

Roc Nation Sports, the management and sports agency founded by JAY-Z, has partnered with the Gaming Community Network (part of the GameSquare Esports group of companies)

According to a statement released via Globe Newswire, this is a multi-year partnership geared towards creating “authentic bespoke athlete-centric strategies, including esports tournaments, gaming content production, live streaming events, and provide content syndication across the GCN Network which includes 85+ gaming and esports-centric websites”. Roc Nation Sports’ COO and Head of Strategy also had this to say:

Increasingly, athletes are engaging in the world of esports gaming. Younger audiences represent a hugely influential and important demographic to reach. By pairing GCN’s vast network and capabilities with Roc Nation Sports’ diverse global footprint, we anticipate that our clients will be able to connect to a broader community while growing their personal brands and businesses through innovative and multi-facing gaming projects.
Brodie Van Wagenen, COO and Head of Strategy / Business Development at Roc Nation Sports

GameSquare Esports, GCN’s parent company, is also the parent company of several other organizations – including Code Red Esports. GameSquare and its subsidiaries most recently acquired Complexity Gaming for somewhere north of $27m, which absorbed several members of Complexity’s ownership group into GameSquare itself. The move also instituted Complexity’s Jason Lake as GameSquare’s Head of Esports, and made Complexity the largest individual shareholder in GameSquare itself.

GCN looks to merge their deep capabilities within esports with Roc Nation Sports’ marketing and social media presence, both to create new strategies for the existing Roc Nation Sports roster, and to attract new talent that recognizes the importance esports. Roc Nation’s current roster includes top-flight athletes such as Leonard Fournette, Kevin De Bruyne, Saquon Barkley, and more. Roc Nation Sports also represents Mosaad “Msdossary” Al-Dossary, 2018 eSports Player of the Year and FIFA eWorld Cup champion. He is currently the only esports athlete on their roster, but probably not for long.

You always love to see news like this, where conventional media collides with the esports and gaming space. GameSquare is an absolutely massive group of companies, and Roc Nation has the power of one of the biggest media moguls alive behind it. They invented the phrase “too big to fail” for this type of partnership. My biggest question though, is this: do Roc Nation Sports’ esports athletes each get a Roc-A-Fella chain? Because if so, I’m gonna need to find a game to go pro at, and quickly.

Happy Thursday, folks.