In-game advertising group, Bidstack Group (BIDS) , announced on Thursday that it had extended its multi-year partnership with Sega’s world leading developer of football management simulations, Sports Interactive, by a further three years.
The extension will give Bidstack exclusive rights to serve native in-game ads to the advertising inventory within Football Manager.
The decision to offer an extension follows Bidstack’s success of serving relevant in-game ads within Sports Interactive’s Football Manager 2018 and 2019 titles in a “non-intrusive, fully immersive way” -- specifically, in a way that doesn’t affect the gamer’s overall experience, the company emphasised.
James Draper, Bidstack's CEO recognised the extension as an “advocacy to the service” which the firm offers, whilst also highlighting the wider implications of the deal for growing business, stating:
“Building strong relationships with world leading video game publishers is incredibly important to the growth of our business and the scale of the gaming audience we bring to our advertisers.
Signing another multi-year exclusive agreement with Sports Interactive shows how big an impact in-game advertising is making in both the gaming and advertising industries."
Shares in Bidstack jumped to over 10% following the news.
Sports Interactive will release its upcoming 2020 title, Football Manager, in November this year on PC, Mac, and as a launch title on Google Stadia. Additionally, the firm will be releasing the title alongside Bidstack’s Software Development Kit (‘SDK’) which offers a range of software components aimed at driving user behaviour.
Notably, this is the first time Bidstack’s SDK will run live on a title, with its functionality spanning from brand safety to game publisher’s tracking real-time health of their inventory in game, via Bidstack's AdConsole.
Commenting on Bidstack and the deal’s implications for the firm, Dr. Tom Markham, Head of Strategic Business Development at Sports Interactive added:
"Their cutting-edge technology allows us to serve impactful real-world ads in the form of realistic, perimeter pitchside advertising in Football Manager.
This enables us to further monetise our titles, which we can invest in future games and events. It also helps to add to the immersive match experience for FM players."
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