Amazon University Esports Expands Across Europe

When considering the size and scope of Amazon today it is hard to believe that it began with Jeff Bezos selling books out of his garage. Since its inception in 1994 Amazon has grown from a rudimentary online store for print books into a technology juggernaut that covers a plethora of services including eBooks, audiobooks, a multi-product e-commerce solution, cloud computing, and the list goes on.

The company has also tried its hand at gaining a foothold in the world’s most lucrative market, gaming. This has included them launching their own game development studio, optimising Amazon Web Services as a game hosting and streaming platform and more recently investing in the development of international esports teams.

 Global Esports Drive

At the core of Amazon’s drive to position themselves at the cutting edge of esports development is their Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports (AUE) initiative. Taking a page from leading sporting franchises such as football in the United Kingdom and American football in the United States the AUE is dedicated to developing talented university-level gamers into world-class esports contenders.

AUE recently announced that it will be expanding its European presence to include universities in Germany, France, and Poland with plans for including Scandinavian universities well underway.

With their established footprint in Great Britain, Italy, and Spain this makes AUE one of the largest and most inclusive European esports development hubs in the world.

 On the Shoulders of Giants

While the AUE is entirely unique to Amazon it is built on a platform created and operated by Spanish esports experts GGTech Entertainment. The platform is the leading provider of fully customisable leaderboards, rank trackers and other pivotal tournament modules needed to run and hosting competitive esports events.

In the United Kingdom alone the AUE Spring tournaments saw more than three thousand competitors across nearly 100 universities duke it out on Valorant, CS:GO, League of Legends and Rainbow Six Siege for fame and fortune in front of millions of fans on Twitch.

In addition to the work GGTech is doing with AUE they are also platform providers for other youth and developmental esports projects including:

• IESports League – an electronic sports league specifically dedicated to high school players.
• Circuito Tormenta – a RIOT Games led initiative focused on developing amateur esports.

GGTech is also involved with DODIT Entertainment, eWorlds and the Gamergy Event which all focus on creating virtual and offline events with the aim of fostering a sense of community, encouraging friendly competition, and allowing for the development of influencers and content creators from within the industry.

This not only adds commercial value to the esports industry as a whole but allows players to expand their revenue generation options and look toward their futures as any competitive sports person should.