KSV eSports International founders Kevin Chou (left) and Kent Wakeford. They previously ran Kabam together.
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Why Kabam cofounder Kevin Chou is diving into esports with Overwatch League’s Seoul franchise

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 4 min

Kevin Chou and Kent Wakeford spent years building Kabam into a mobile gaming giant and selling it (in parts) for more than $800 million to Netmarble and Fox. They could have retired. But they have spent an estimated $20 million for the right to a franchise of Blizzard Entertainment’s Overwatch League in the esports-crazy region of Seoul, South Korea.

The esports economy will grow 41.3 percent to $696 million in 2017, according to market researcher Newzoo, and the Overwatch League could very well be the spearhead of the whole market as competitive gaming seeks its place alongside traditional sports.

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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.