NetEase is financing an Esport Park for its OWL team, Shanghai Dragons

Published at 12/08/2019 at 02:46 By Clémence "Idril" Lemoal

Philadelphia having already announced its brand new arena, Shanghai is not the first esports franchise to build its own structure. Despite this, NetEase — which own the Overwatch League team Shanghai Dragons — has ensured that it will invest $725 million in a structure that will be built by 2021.

NetEase is financing an Esport Park for its OWL team, Shanghai Dragons

A major competitor of Tencent on Chinese soil, NetEase is an almost historical partner of Blizzard in the distribution of its licenses. While Tencent is affiliated with League of Legends and Arena of Valor in particular, NetEase has opted for a long-term contract with Starcraft and Warcraft 3 licenses in particular. The firm also invested in Total War and began to create development studios.

Horizon 2021

The latest announcement: the creation of the Shanghai Esports Park — which will house game creation offices, talent incubators, and finally an esports arena. Matches of the Shanghai Dragons franchise (owned by NetEase) will be hosted in the arena when the Overwatch League will organise home games.

This project is huge and is expected to cost approximately $725 million. It is located in the Shanghai Qingpu District and has already been started. All of them should be completed in 2021. This is the second announcement after the Philadelphia Fusion and their Fusion Arena planned for 2020.