During the fall semester, Professor Will Norton’s Sport Sponsorship Strategy class collaborated with alum Brett Estrella ’16—a member of Excel’s Properties team who leads the esports practice in the division—on a final project tied to sponsorship sales in Esports.
Here's what Estrella had to say about the experience:
“Activity around gaming and e-sports has flourished in 2020. It was an industry that experienced significant growth before coronavirus-related lockdowns and will continue to grow long after life gets back to ‘normal.’ I currently help manage Excel’s e-sports representation practice and our team has spent the last 18 months immersing ourselves in the business, culture, and major trends impacting the landscape. New perspectives always challenge us to think differently and look at problems through a new lens, which is why I was happy to work with McCormack students. The students thought critically about identifying new partnership opportunities for e-sports properties, while crafting strategies for brands to activate in an unfamiliar space.”
Professor Will Norton also found the project enlightening:
"Our courses intentionally design experiential learning projects with sport management stakeholders, so McCormack students feel trained, confident, and prepared to enter interviews, internships, and jobs with meaningful ‘practice reps.’ In many cases, these projects offer students meaningful portfolio-building deliverables they can showcase as illustrative statements of the quality of their work. Sport Sponsorship 481 students were fortunate to work with one of our bright and fast-rising young alums in Brett Estrella, gaining valuable insight into the sponsorship sales process and commercial ecosystem of e-sports. Student feedback on the project was tremendous, and Brett’s appearance in class tied a nice bow on the end of a challenging semester!”
