SLIVER.tv, the leading esports 360º virtual reality entertainment platform, has announced its broad-reaching 2017 partnership with the major players of ESL and DreamHack.

Fans of the ESL One series, IEM and DreamHack Masters will be given the option to view the action in virtual reality courtesy of this deal.

ESL’s mega events like ESL One and the Intel Extreme Masters series, DreamHack’s DreamLeague, DreamHack ASTRO Open and DreamHack Masters reach over 50 million global esports fans meaning it’s a huge deal for all parties involved.

Mitch Liu, founder and CEO of SLIVER.tv, said: “We are thrilled to be working closely with two of the largest esports tourney organisers in the world in 2017.

“Our vision is to forever transform the esports spectating experience by providing new perspectives and insights into live esports streams. In partnering with ESL and DreamHack across these 14 global events, we have the opportunity to showcase our 360 virtual reality, live replays and stats technology to millions of esports fans worldwide.”

SLIVER.tv was Beta testing its VR Live Cast tournament platform for the final three months of 2016 collaboration with ESL, at events such as ESL One New York and IEM in Oakland. Powered by the company’s Virtual Camera array patented technology, the new stream enables spectators to step into and experience top esports games in fully immersive 360º virtual reality. The most recent event, IEM Oakland drew over 130,000 unique viewers across SLIVER.tv’s web 360, mobile and VR apps platform and drove 40% greater engagement and 13x more video content consumed over the first event.

The full list of events is as follows: ESL One Cologne, ESL One New York, IEM Katowice, DreamHack Masters Las Vegas, all of the DreamHack ASTRO Opens, and the DreamLeague Season 7 and 8 playoffs. In addition there are a number agreed for which the details are yet to be confirmed.

Stuart Ewen, Product Manager of ESL, said: “Our partnership with SLIVER.tv at ESL One New York and IEM Oakland last year exceeded our expectations, and our fans, teams and players were blown away by the first-ever live broadcast of CS:GO and League of Legends in VR.

“We are delighted to partner with SLIVER.tv this year across 7 events starting with Intel Extreme Masters in Katowice, Poland where in 2016 we saw over 100,000 attendees and nearly two million peak concurrent online viewers. With the help of SLIVER.tv we hope 2017 will be even bigger and better.”

Marcus Lindmark CEO, DreamHack AB, added: “DreamHack was impressed with SLIVER.tv’s success with ESL events last year and its unique offering. We decided to work exclusively with SLIVER.tv globally in 2017 on 7 events and leverage its turnkey end-to-end VR Live Cast platform solution so we can focus on our production.

“DreamHack ASTRO Open is one of the longest running esports circuits in the world with over 150 million started streams alone in 2016. We are looking forward to an even more successful year with the addition of the new 360 VR streams.”

Esports Insider says: SLIVER.tv makes for an incredibly exciting new way to consume esports, and after successful test cases with ESL last year, the fact that 14 major events will feature it is great news. This’ll lead to fans coming to expect a 360º VR component rather than being amazed and intrigued by it. The future has arrived.