DUX Gaming reportedly buy NBA 2K League Mexico slot for $25m
NBA 2K League / PexelsSpanish gaming organization DUX Gaming have reportedly purchased a slot in the NBA 2K League for a whopping $25 million, surprising many esports fans who drew parallels to price points in other leagues.
The NBA 2K League’s inaugural season was in 2018, when 17 teams competed for a title, all representing actual NBA organizations. Now, for the 2022 season, the 2KL is up to 24 teams — with DUX’s Mexico squad being the second international org enlisted.
While the news of Madrid-based DUX’s acquisition of a league slot has been officially confirmed, it was unclear how much they spent to buy-in.
Now, based on a report by Sports Business Journal’s Trent Murray, it appears that the organization spent a whopping $25 million to secure its spot.
DUX Gaming buy into NBA 2K League for $25m
That’s a big number for 2K league https://t.co/geewvzkVFY pic.twitter.com/cNZOPcsdIF
— Ben Fischer (@BenFischerSBJ) September 29, 2021
The immediate response to the news has mainly been surprising, as SBJ’s Ben Fischer seemed surprised by the figure: “that’s a big number for 2K league.”
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In the replies, quote tweets, and other posts on social media — people seem similarly confused by the price point needed for the 2K League. One user laughed at the fact that “League of Legends slots are as costly as NBA 2K.”
Amidst other jokes about DUX getting “finessed” and the like, some have gotten more serious in their response, discussing the league’s metrics.
If accurate, a $25M franchise fee for a 2K League slot is absolutely nonsensical. This valuation could only be substantiated by fomo and nothing else. The league does very little by all metrics https://t.co/VG6PoAFcvB
— Roger Quiles (@RogerQuiles) September 29, 2021
As mentioned by one critic, the NBA 2K League “does very little by all metrics.”
With the Call of Duty and Overwatch Leagues both exclusively streamed on YouTube, those numbers can be a little hard to compare. On Twitch, the 2KL has almost 167k followers (per TwitchMetrics) and on YouTube, it has 79.9k subscribers. Conversely, the OWL and CDL YouTube channels have 812k and 1.48m subscribers, respectively.
With the relatively low 2KL data and Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag’s recent claim that he paid $27 million for a CDL slot, there’s context for the confused reactions.
At the moment, the price reports are unconfirmed and it remains unclear how much a 2K League slot normally costs. Regardless, many will be excited to find out if the investment pays off.
