Pro Esports Franchise Gen.G Partners with University of Kentucky For Gaming Program
The University of Kentucky is tapping professional esports franchise Gen.G to help build its competitive video-gaming program, a new type of partnership that will span athletics and academics.
Bloomberg
Gen.G will help the university grow its gaming teams and consult on the development of a dedicated space on campus for gamers to train. It also will assist on the academic side, helping the school build its gaming curriculum and provide career development for current and former Kentucky students.
It’s not news that the esports industry is a giant. As of right now it’s a billion dollar industry with a ton of space to grow. First the University of Utah offering scholarships, and then the University of California Irvine building esports facilities.. It’s time that colleges start realizing how lucrative competitive gaming and gaming as a whole could be. And not only for the people that study it, but for the school as well with the tuition money they’re going to make from it.
Back when I was going to college, the only way to get money off is to be really smart, or really athletic. And I was neither. It sucked to have to spend an arm and a leg for an education, something at that time that felt so necessary. This is a way for students applying who aren’t the most athletic, and aren’t the sharpest tool in the shed to be able to go to college and get some coin off and study something they’re passionate about.
“You’re starting to see a lot of esports team organizations pursue their own idiosyncratic paths toward what they really want to be — whether its apparel, lifestyle brands or in other cases, just purely competitive,” Park said. “For us, we see the future of Gen.G being a brand to serve the development of young people. That goes for fans, athletes and casual gamers.”
Bloomberg
Here comes the domino effect.
