On Monday, Activision Blizzard announced that current Major League Baseball deputy commissioner and COO Tony Petitti would take over as president of sports and entertainment on August 17, overseeing esports, consumer products, and film and television.

Petitti, who will report to Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, is expected to focus on televised product and live events for the Overwatch and Call of Duty leagues. His experience as CEO of MLB Network, executive producer at CBS Sports and programming director at ABC Sports promises to advance outreach and content, boosting the esports segment of Activision Blizzard.

Petitti said Kotick contacted him several months ago to discuss global opportunities in esports and how major pro sports league and major sports networks might help the company take the Overwatch and Call of Duty leagues to the next level.

“It just felt like it lined up perfectly in a space that’s already growing, but really poised for increased growth,” he said. “I love baseball, so we went through a lot to get to that point [to leave] but it was the right decision.”

This year, Activision Blizzard’s plans for esports expansion with live events in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles to Toronto, London, Paris, Shanghai and Seoul were derailed by the coronavirus pandemic, yet the company is confident that once business picks up, esports live events will be able to seriously compete with traditional sports.

Kotick said that Activision Blizzard hopes to make the esports spectator experience more accessible and attract a larger audience. He mentioned the innovation and enthusiasm that Petitti had brought to MLB, MLB Network, CBS and ABC. He expressed hope that enhanced content focused on professional player and team profiles as well as amateur and collegiate esports players would maximize the potential of the Overwatch and Call of Duty leagues.

Petitti is leaving Major League Baseball as owners and players battle over a delayed and shortened 2020 season as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, Kotick is contending with President Trump’s executive order that targets Chinese companies TikTok parent company ByteDance and Tencent, which owns a minority stake in Activision Blizzard. The order resulted in a 5% drop in stock prices on Friday.

Despite the setback, last week, Activision Blizzard announced record-setting second-quarter numbers thanks to global interest in Call of Duty during the pandemic. Call of Duty: Warzone now has more than 75 million players and over 200 million downloads of the game’s free mobile version.

Source: Forbes

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