Sports Illustrated Announces Launching Of New eSports Vertical

© Provided by The Spun eSports Illustrated

On Thursday, Sports Illustrated announced it has launched a new vertical - this time stepping into the water of eSports.

So what will the new vertical be called? Esports Illustrated, of course.

The new vertical actually soft launched a few months ago to cover the League of Legends World Championship in November. However, the hard launch was officially announced on Thursday.

Sports Illustrated Media Group senior vice president Chris Pirrone said the site will allow contractors and freelancers to own a specific vertical on the SI website for a more interactive campaign.

Here's what he said, via Digiday:

“What the video game opportunity offers us is more short-form content that people are searching for, or that is trending,” Pirrone said. “Whereas the content strategy for esports was directionally more toward the traditional Sports Illustrated, where we could cover aspects of personalities, teams, things that are a little bit more feature-like.”

eSports continues to be a growing industry and Sports Illustrated is making sure it joins the ranks - in a somewhat different way.