It describes itself as “a new kind of video game entertainment league—where gaming, culture, music, sports, fashion, and reality TV collide.” With celebrity-led teams, live competitions, a platform for global fan participation, and next-gen media experiences, the Global Gaming League (GGL) is building “the first entertainment system for the world’s largest and most engaged audience.”
The nation’s biggest audio content creation and distribution company believes in its growth potential.
This explains why iHeartMedia, the No. 1 owner of radio stations in the U.S. and the top podcast producer and distributor, has signed a production, marketing and distribution deal with the GGL.
The agreement makes iHeartMedia’s the audio partner of GGL, co-creating original podcasts that will deliver weekly gaming and culture programming across iHeartMedia’s multiplatform network.
Additionally, “all initiatives will be elevated through GGL’s unique partnerships with its celebrity team owners, all true gamers with tremendous influence,” iHeartMedia boasts.
The architect of the Global Gaming League is CEO Clinton Sparks, who happened to start his career at iHeartRadio. “Gaming is culture,” he says. “[The company] understands that its artists, talent and listeners are gamers. This partnership brings that reality to the forefront and connects it with a league built to unite gaming, music, fashion, sports and celebrity in a unique way that seamlessly brings these worlds together.”
As part of the agreement, Sparks will debut his own podcast, “Get Familiar,” later this year with iHeartPodcasts. The on-demand audio offering will feature “intimate conversations with brilliant minds, iconic celebrities and delightfully offbeat contrarians to unpack culture, disrupt norms and say the quiet parts others are afraid to say out loud.”
For Michael Biondo, President of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships for iHeartMedia. “This collaboration shows iHeart’s commitment to authentically elevating gaming culture. Together, iHeart and GGL are creating a new blueprint for how gaming lives inside mainstream culture—bringing competitive gaming to listeners and new fans nationwide by introducing them directly into the Global Gaming League ecosystem.”
