Mike Sepso, former SVP at Activision Blizzard.
Mike Sepso, former SVP at Activision Blizzard.
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MLG cofounder Mike Sepso joins New York Excelsior Overwatch League team

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 3 min

Mike Sepso is an esports pioneer and a cofounder of Major League Gaming (MLG). And now he’s become an executive at the New York Excelsior (NYXL), one of the 12 founding franchises of the Overwatch League and the first professional esports franchise to represent New York City.

Sepso most recently served as senior vice president of Activision Blizzard, where he helped run the MLG group that staged tournaments and created esports broadcasts. Sepso has joined as a strategic partner of the NYXL ownership group, operated by Sterling.VC, which is run by the Wilpon family that also owns the New York Mets baseball team. The Overwatch League is trying to match the local enthusiasm for traditional sports, and if it succeeds, there could be a gold mine replicated in local markets around the country. Market researcher Newzoo estimates esports will be a $1.65 billion business by 2020.

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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.