CHICAGOLAWBULLETIN.COM TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2017 ® Volume 163, No. 50 Serving Chicago’s legal community for 162 years NBA goes beyond game with e-sports partnership ideo gaming has when it announced that it was come a long way teaming up with Take-Two Inter - since Pac-Man and active Software Inc. to sponsor SPORTS MARKETING PLAYBOOK Donkey Kong. Back an e-sports league, the first then, the term “gam - among U.S. professional sports’ Ving” didn’t exist outside of com - Big Four to enter into such a puter labs, e-sports wasn’t a deal. category of sports and the only The new “NBA 2K eLeague,” competition was between scheduled to launch in 2018, is DOUGLAS N. M ASTERS teenagers vying to get listed on built around NBA 2K, a series of AND SETH A. R OSE neighborhood arcade machines’ basketball-simulation video highest scores list. games designed to emulate the Fast-forward to today, when e- play of NBA teams. Douglas N. Masters is a partner at Loeb & Loeb LLP, where he litigates and sports is a multimillion-dollar in - The first game was released in counsels clients primarily in intellectual property, advertising and unfair dustry with collegiate and 1999 and a new one is developed competition. He is co-chair of the firm’s intellectual property protection group and professional teams and leagues, and published every year. Origi - he can be reached at
[email protected]. Seth A. Rose is a partner at the firm, corporate sponsorships and com - nally published by video game in - where he counsels clients on programs and initiatives in advertising, marketing, petitions and events with tens novator Sega under its Sega promotions, media, sponsorships, entertainment, branded and integrated and sometimes hundreds of Sports label, NBA 2K is now marketing, and social media.