Twitch secures Blizzard streaming rights

Online video giant Twitch has announced that it has secured a global two-year deal for exclusive streaming rights for over 20 Blizzard eSports events.

The agreement secures coverage of major titles including Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, World of Warcraft, StarCraft II and Overwatch and, according to Twitch, reflects Blizzard and Twitch’s long-term investment and ongoing commitment to their passionate communities”.

Signed events include the Heroes of the Storm Global Championship (HGC), the StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS Circuit), the Hearthstone Championship Tour (HCT), Hearthstone Global Games (HGG), the World of Warcraft Arena Championship and the Overwatch APEX League.

Topping it off, Twitch Prime members will receive some Blizzard loot including a guaranteed Legendary Loot Box item for Overwatch. This will be available between June 20th and August 10th. Following this Twitch Prime members will receive an additional 10 Overwatch Loot Boxes.

"We founded Twitch as a gaming platform heavily based on our community’s reaction to games like Blizzard’s StarCraft II," Twitch COO Kevin Lin. "Since then, our large, but tight-knit community, our constantly evolving suite of interactive features, and a native emote-driven chat language celebrated by viewers enable us to support and grow Blizzard esports in a manner that best serves our collective fans."

Chief product officer and Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce added: We’ve had great experiences and a long history of working with Twitch, and we’re thrilled that this landmark agreement with them will help us bring some of the most exciting eSports action in the world to Twitch fans and everyone who follows Blizzard eSports.

Our eSports communities are vital to us. We know there are millions of people out there who love Blizzard eSports as much as we do, and we’re committed to making sure they’ll be able to cheer on their favourite players in all of their favouritism Blizzard games for a long time to come.”