The NHL wants to expand its esports program next year to include all 31 teams.

This year, the league put on a one-on-one tournament series to test the potential of hockey esports.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman wants to use hockey esports to increase interest in hockey rather than spin off a separate league.

In an interview with ESPN, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman outlined some of his plans for the hockey league’s methodical expansion into esports. Rather than launch a separate league as the NBA has done with the NBA 2K League, Bettman wants to use hockey esports to generate increased interest in the sport itself.

“We want to use esports to build more interest and a greater connectivity to our game through the hockey video game,” Bettman told ESPN.

This year, the NHL dipped its toe into esports with the NHL Gaming World Championship—an international one-on-one tournament where players from the U.S., Canada, and Europe competed for a $100K prize pool. According to NHL vice president of business development Chris Golier, the league wanted to approach esports carefully, using the tournament as a testing ground. Next year, the league’s plans are much more ambitious.

While the NHL still has no plans to create a fully distinct esports league, Golier confirmed that next year’s initiative will ideally include participation from all NHL teams and feature locally activated tournaments. The league also plans to move away from the one-on-one matches of the NHL Gaming World Championship to a format with six-person teams.

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[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Despite the league’s assertion that the NHL Gaming World Championship was a test, the NHL recruited several of its partners for the event, including Bridgestone, Honda, Dunkin’ Donuts, Geico, and Scotiabank.[/perfectpullquote]

Traditional sports games have struggled to reach the viewership numbers of standard esports like Rocket League , but the NBA 2K League has shown that an affiliation with a popular sports league can still attract sponsors. Each of the basketball esports league’s 17 teams has signed at least one brand partnership including non-endemic brands like Bedgear and regional deals like Pacers Gaming’s partnership with the Indiana Army National Guard. Several NBA teams even expanded some of their existing partnerships to include their NBA 2K League team, as the New York Knicks did with Squarespace.

If the NHL can get the majority of its teams on board—or all of them, as Bettman hopes—it is possible a similar volume of sponsorships will sign on for its esports initiative. Despite the league’s assertion that the NHL Gaming World Championship was a test, the NHL recruited several of its partners for the event, including Bridgestone, Honda, Dunkin’ Donuts, Geico, and Scotiabank.

The strategies employed by the NBA and NHL for their esports initiatives closely mirror the difference in methodology used by Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft for Overwatch and Rainbow Six: Siege respectively. Like the NBA, Blizzard chose to invest heavily upfront to create a franchised league, drawing headlines with major media rights deals and brand partnerships. The NHL and Ubisoft, on the other hand, have chosen to develop their esports scenes more methodically, carefully testing their programs and scaling up more gradually. Both the Overwatch League and the NBA 2K League have drawn more headlines this year, but the recent surge in Rainbow Six’s popularity shows that the NHL’s more considered approach can also find success.