ESL adds viewership goals to Pro Tour revenue share model

ESL's revamped Pro Tour will feature a new prize pool distribution that allocates winnings to players and clubs. Additionally, a new "Annual Club Incentive Program" will reward teams who meet specific goals (namely attracting high viewership) with a share of the profits.

At IEM Katowice and Cologne, which ESL refers to as the "Championship" events, the player prize pool will be $1 million with a club prize pool of $250,000. At "Masters" events like Dallas, Chengdu, and Pro League, the clubs will take home the larger portion of the prize pool.

The Annual Club Incentive program will reward teams that qualify for multiple tournaments and draw strong viewership. Teams will collect points earned for ranking higher in viewership, and those points will be multiplied by the number of events they attend to get their Club Contribution score. That score will determine the portion of the $2.95 million ESL has allocated that a club will receive.

Longer events will be worth more viewership points. Teams are required to participate in the events they are invited to, as well as "commit to a core set of promotional obligations for the tournaments" to be eligible for the Annual Club Incentive program. Teams may opt out of up to three tournaments within a two year period and remain eligible, but they cannot opt out of three in a single year.

The ESL Pro Tour 2025 begins officially on January 29th with IEM Katowice.