Google has reportedly paid $160 million in a new deal with Activision Blizzard for the rights to broadcast its esports events.

As reported by The Esports Observer, the partnership covers the American firm's major esports franchises - the Overwatch League, Call of Duty League and Hearthstone. The deal is for three years and will include Google's cloud services

The majority of the money is thought to be contributed to Overwatch, given that the OWL is the biggest esport property currently owned by Activision Blizzard.

A strong bond

While less money is going to Call of Duty, it will still receive more than Hearthstone - the latter was described as "essentially a free throw-in for YouTube."

Previously, Activision Blizzard had a two year deal valued at $90 million for just the Overwatch League.

In January 2020, it was confirmed that Activision Blizzard and Google signed a "multi-year" streaming partnership. This made YouTube the publishers exclusive streaming partner outside of China.