The esports industry is filled with celebrity investors such as rapper Drake or Michael Jordan as well as celebrity owners like Rick Fox. Recently, esports organization Panda Global (PG) added a new category of celebrity involvement by signing actor Asa Butterfield, star of “Ender’s Game” and Netflix’s new series “Sex Education”. While Butterfield’s official role with the team is “brand ambassador,” he will also compete in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournaments representing the team.

Panda Global CEO Alan Bunney told The Esports Observer that Butterfield’s connection to the organization began organically. The actor is a long-time fan of competitive Super Smash Bros, and had become friendly with two of PG’s professional Smash players, Eric “ESAM” Lew and Jestise “MVD” Negron.

In previous interviews, Bunney has been outspoken about his hesitation with bringing celebrities into Panda Global who don’t have a true connection to esports. “You look at all these other teams that have celebrities involved,” he said, “if you watch these celebrities talk about the games or play the games that their players play, it’s a joke.”

However, Butterfield had already proven his genuine affinity for Smash by competing in tournaments, and being vocal on social media about the game. To Bunney, that authenticity is what makes Butterfield’s association with the organization work. “To us, [celebrities who don’t play games are] not genuine. That’s not real. Asa to us is something real. Something that connects with our audience because he’s one of them. It’s important to us, that genuineness.”

Credit: Panda Global

The announcement bringing Butterfield into the team was made ahead of his first tournament as a member of Panda Global, Genesis 6. Although he competes in tournaments representing the organization, his official role differs from that of Lew or the team’s other professional players.“

“He’s a brand ambassador,” Bunney said. “We tried to give it a cooler name but couldn’t think of one, unfortunately. He’s not on our pro roster per se. He’s going to make some videos with [PG investor and YouTuber] Alpharad, he’s going to stream when he has time, he’s going to play other players, he’s going to train up and enter things using the tag ‘Stimpy’.”

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Bunney emphasized that Butterfield’s role with the team is more than a simple publicity stunt. “He is an actor, he’s not necessarily a pro player, but he’s going to try. He flew from [Smash tournament] Genesis to Tokyo, and in Tokyo, he entered a local tournament with some of the best players in Japan. So he’s on that grind. He’s doing promotion for his Netflix series while practicing.”

“Him joining us is also a way for him to introduce his demographic to competitive gaming. That’s something that’s really unique and on the rise. There’s a lot of people that follow Asa that after the announcement were like ‘what is this?’ So we’re actually seeing some of those people saying ‘what is this?’ starting to play these games to learn. And this is what we were hoping for.”

Credit: Netflix

Panda Global and Butterfield will have plenty of opportunities to reach a broader audience. Netflix has already renewed Sex Education for a second season. Bunney said that he sees Butterfield’s role with Panda Global could make for an interesting talking point on talk shows and in promotional interviews, bringing Smash and esports to a new demographic. “There’s a lot of potential here for new growth.”

While Butterfield’s social media following and star power will no doubt be assets to Panda Global, they are not tools that Bunney intends to leverage in every future sponsorship negotiation. “We will not rely on Asa in [partnership] negotiations…he has agents, he has his whole Hollywood career ahead of him, and we don’t want there to be a clash there.” Bunney did say that, if a brand is interested in an activation with Butterfield, he could potentially be brought into the negotiation separately.

For Bunney, the signing of Butterfield is part of his overall brand strategy of maintaining authenticity with Panda Global’s fans. “The authenticity, in my opinion, is the reason why our merchandise has sold very well,” he said. “…Not because we are the biggest team, not because we’re backed by some celebrity, any reason other than the fact that we are authentic. This comes out to our audience and they see it, and this provides us with deeper roots than other teams can do.”

“We’re even open to other celebrities talking to us as well, people that are actually playing these games.” Bunney said that the organization has received messages from some celebrities following Butterfield’s announcement.