How Udinese is investing in e-sports

Udinese Calcio is confirmed as one of the most modern and futuristic clubs in Serie A thanks to investments and long-term strategies that set it apart from other Italian properties. First and foremost is its own stadium, the Dacia Arena, which seals the now decade-long relationship between the Friulian team and its main sponsor, which has even designed the third jersey for this season, but also in the relationships that the Pozzo-led club has been able to establish with other brands on and for the territory. Also moving in this direction is the e-sports section of the Juventus club, which was born in 2020 in the midst of a pandemic and has become in just two seasons one of the most relevant forces in the new eSerie A TIM.

Yesterday, together with partners D-Link, main sponsor and world leader in network and connectivity technologies, and BenQ, back jersey sponsor and leading company in image visualization technologies, the new jersey that will dress the young talents of the Fifa23 team was presented. A jersey that retains the design from the one used by Sottil's revelation team of the season, and hopefully will retrace the same important results. But talking to Gianluca Pizzamiglio, Udinese Calcio Marketing Manager and founder of Udinese eSports Team, the focus of the project is always on the processes and synergies that can be created over the mere result on the pitch, in this case a virtual one. 

"With Udinese calcio we always think that the sports result is a variable in our world but not the main one. We over the years, even when things were going less well, opened the stadium, did many activities on and off the field. Obviously when you win we are all happier and more relaxed, but really everything is thought about in the long term," Pizzamiglio says. He is echoed by Giacomo Rocchi, Sales and Marketing Director of BenQ Italy, who reiterates how "one of the reasons for the success of this partnership is to be found in the harmony that was immediately created between companies that always position themselves as outsiders, who work a lot on product value, technological innovation and customer orientation."

While for Luigi Salmoiraghi, Sales and Marketing Director D-Link, the aim is "to bring a world born in 2D, from televisions to cell phones, into the third dimension, that is, to start doing events again in presence, physical, at the Dacia Arena facility but not only. It is not true that gaming is something that can only be enjoyed through a screen but it is a world made up of people who want to relate and have something to share together." It will begin with the eSerie A TIM 2023 presentation event on Thursday, Nov. 10 at the D-Link Gaming Room at the Dacia Arena in Udine, another prestigious acknowledgement for the eSports movement in HCL colors.