Legitimizing and Institutionalizing eSports in the NBA 2K League

Open Access
Authors
Publication date 2021
Host editors
  • M.L. Butterworth
Book title Communication and Sport
ISBN
  • 9783110657074
ISBN (electronic)
  • 9783110660883
  • 9783110657159
Series Handbooks of Communication Science
Chapter 21
Pages (from-to) 387-402
Number of pages 16
Publisher Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton
Organisations
  • Faculty of Humanities (FGw) - Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research (AIHR) - Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA)
Abstract
Launched in 2018, the NBA 2K League is a National Basketball Association eSports subsidiary centered on the popular NBA 2K video game series. The 2K League enables the NBA, an organization that has more aggressively embraced trends in emerging media than its North American peers, to infiltrate new markets and platforms through investing in eSports. Meanwhile, the 2K League helps to legitimize eSports by attaching the niche activity to an established sports brand. This chapter uses the 2K League to explore how eSports’ development and institutionalization are changing sports organizations’ relationship to media while preserving – and even strengthening – sports’ significance and role in commercial media culture.
Document type Chapter
Language English
Published at https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110660883-021
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