Overwatch League<\/a> prides itself as the first major global esports league to feature city-based teams. Although the tournament was founded in 2017, it had its inaugural season in 2018 with London SpitFire as the inaugural champions.<\/p>\n <\/noscript>The Overwatch League is organized by Blizzard Entertainment and operated by Major League Gaming, a sister company. The league consists of 20 teams divided by location into two conferences, East and West. The East features eight (8) teams, while the West features 12 teams.\n<\/li>\n\nHearthstone Masters<\/h3>\n Formerly known as the Hearthstone World Championship Tour, Hearthstone Masters is a three-tiered tournament system. The Hearthstone Masters has been in existence since 2014 and consists of three concurrently-running tournaments with an enormous prize pool.<\/p>\n
The Hearthstone Masters tournaments are:<\/strong><\/p>\n\nHearthstone Masters Qualifiers<\/li>\n Hearthstone Masters Tours<\/li>\n Hearthstone Grandmasters<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nEight successful players will advance to the Hearthstone World Championship and battle for a slice of the prize pool of US$500,000 at the end of every year. The tournament is hosted annually within a special weekend at BlizzCon.<\/li>\n
\nOverwatch World Cup<\/h3>\n The Overwatch World Cup is an international Overwatch esports tournament organized by Blizzard Entertainment. The tournament holds annually at Blizzard\u2019s BlizzCon with an ever-changing format. It has been held every November since its inception in 2016, except for the past two years owing to the pandemic.<\/p>\n
South Korea are the leading winner, having won the title three consecutively, except for the 2019 title won by the United States. China has made it to the Finals twice but is yet to win the title.\n<\/li>\n
\nStarCraft II WCS<\/h3>\n The StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS) commenced in 2012 by Blizzard Entertainment. The professional tournament series is played using the StarCraft II game developed by Blizzard.<\/p>\n
The tournament ceased to exist in 2020 as Blizzard announced the creation of a new professional circuit, the ESL Pro Tour StarCraft II (EPT) which is run by ESL and Dreamhack but the prize is funded by Blizzard.<\/li>\n
\nWorld of Warcraft Arena World Championship<\/h3>\n <\/noscript>The World of Warcraft Arena World Championship (AWC) is organized by Blizzard Entertainment and introduced in 2012. The tournament is the championship for World of Warcraft tournaments and is currently in its 15th edition. The glory awaits those who want it the most, and as such, qualifying teams battle for the chance to be the world champion with action-packed gameplay of World of Warcraft.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n \nBlizzard Entertainment history<\/h2>\n Blizzard Entertainment prides itself in being an American video game publisher located in Irvine, California. While the parent company, Activision Blizzard\u2019s history dates back more than 40 years, Blizzard Entertainment was founded in 1991.<\/p>\n
Blizzard was initially known as Silicon & Synapse and was founded by three UCLA graduates; Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham, and Frank Pearce. All three founders Of Blizzard Entertainment were interested in electronic gaming and as such, the company’s early offerings involved the conversion of existing gaming titles for personal computer systems.<\/p>\n <\/noscript>Original ‘Silicon & Synapse’ Logo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe company, however, created and released a few of its original titles, such as The Lost Vikings, which was first released in 1992, and Rock \u2018N\u2019 Roll Racing (1993). A change of name was effected in 1993, the company became Chaos Studios Inc.<\/p>\n
But shortly before the release of what became its flagship product, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994, the company’s name suffered yet another change to Blizzard Entertainment after being acquired by the distributor Davidson & Associates. In 1995, going by the success of the title, a sequel was released, Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness. The sequel was a graphical expansion of the original with a number of improvements implemented.<\/p>\n
Blizzard Entertainment has since then developed a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, World of Warcraft (WoW), multi-million selling video game franchises such as Diablo, StarCraft, and Overwatch, alongside several Warcraft sequels. The games are operated via an online gaming service, Battle.net.<\/p>\n
In 2008, Blizzard Entertainment merged with Activision Inc. to form Activisiony Blizzard. Aside from the development, and distribution of video games on mobile devices, game consoles, and personal computers, the company is also involved in the organization of esports leagues<\/a>, alongside the sales of digital advertising and in-game content.<\/p>\n \nBlizzard Entertainment ownership and stock prices<\/h2>\n <\/noscript>Blizzard Entertainment is a public traded company under Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) on the NASDAQ. In the last fiscal year ending December 30, 2021, the brand generated a 29.83% profit margin.<\/p>\nThe largest shareholder of Activision Blizzard is Berkshire Hathaway Inc., with an 8.23% stake in the company. The Vanguard Group Inc are closely behind with a stake of 7.73% and BlackRock Fund Advisors at 5.00%.<\/p>\n
As of July, 2022, ATVI traded at US$77.15 per share with a $0.92 increase from its closing position on July 14. Over the last four weeks, the company gained 1.18% but experienced a 15.92% fall in price over the last year.<\/p>\n
\nHow to bet on Blizzard Entertainment esports games<\/h2>\n Blizzard Entertainment are the creators of some of the biggest esports games<\/a> on the planet, with these including Overwatch and World of Warcraft. Esports betting sites will launch odds well in advance of all of the major Blizzard Entertainment events, while there will also be head to head odds for many of the biggest matches. Generally there will only be markets available at bookies if it is a professional Blizzard-backed esports tournament or league. Most of the top online bookie sites have also got esports betting apps<\/a> available, which is a very convenient way to bet on Blizzard Entertainment esports games. The best betting sites<\/a> for Blizzard Entertainment esports are:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n