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How the Philadelphia 76ers plan to grow esports with Team Dignitas

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 15 min

A few weeks ago, the Philadelphia 76ers became the first NBA franchise to acquire two esports teams, as it bought the United Kingdom-based Team Dignitas and merged it with Team Apex. And today, Philly is naming former Eidos game studio executive Jonathan Kemp as CEO of the squad.

Team Dignitas has competitive esports teams playing League of Legends, Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Heroes of the Storm, and Smite. Esports is a growing market worth $493 million, and now major sports organizations like the 76ers are taking notice.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.