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Texas Rangers Co-Owner Plays Ball and Picks Up OpTic Gaming

Another traditional sports powerhouse is getting into the world of esports.

Ozzie Mejia

November 8, 2017 10:30 AM

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The trend for traditional sports owners these days appears to be getting into the growing world of esports. Wednesday morning came the latest, with Neil Leibman, co-owner of the Texas Rangers, purchasing a majority share of OpTic Gaming.

The report comes via a report from Sports Business Daily (via Dot Esports), which notes that OpTic will become a part of Leibman's Infinite Esports & Entertainment esports company. Furthermore, all operations will move to a new headquarters based in Dallas.

OpTic is among the most high-profile esports organizations in the world, boasting the 2017 Call of Duty world champion squad, the Halo Championship Series Pro League Fall 2017 Champions, and the ELEAGUE Season 2 champions for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. They also have representation in both the upcoming Overwatch League (as the Houston Outlaws) and the League of Legends NA LCS. Leibman's investment is expected to go towards the hefty joining fees for the latter two leagues, which cost $33 million combined, as well as fund moves towards potential new esports ventures.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?