With esports gaining increased attention from bettors amid the coronavirus pandemic, online gambling company Betway announced Tuesday that it is sponsoring the DreamHack Masters Spring.
A $300,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event, DreamHack Masters Spring kicked off two of its four online regional events Tuesday: a 16-team European bracket and an eight-team North America bracket, both of which will run through June 14.
The Asia and Oceania events, each with four teams, are scheduled for June 2-7.
The tournament would have been held in June at Jonkoping, Sweden, if not for the COVID-19 outbreak.
Betway already had sponsorship deals with three of the teams in the DreamHack Masters Spring: Brazil's MIBR, playing in the North America bracket, and Sweden's Ninjas in Pyjamas and Germany's BIG, both playing in the European bracket.
The gambling platform also sponsors event organizers ESL and BLAST Pro Series, plus the FACE-IT CS:GO Major and the Dota 2 team of China's Invictus Gaming.
"At Betway we are thrilled to be adding DreamHack Masters Spring to our portfolio of top tier esports events. It reinforces our strong commitment to the scene and we look forward to being part of such a legendary tournament," Betway head of esports Adam Savinson said in a statement.
DreamHack co-CEO Roger Lodewick said in a statement, "This is a strong commitment not only to DreamHack, but to the CS:GO community in these challenging times where we shift from offline to online tournament play."
Betway, headquartered in Malta, also sponsors horse races, snooker events, cricket teams and leagues plus soccer teams including England's West Ham United, Germany's Werder Bremen and Spain's Levante and Leganes.