On Monday, popular Brazilian streamer Alexandre “Gaules” Borba Chiqueta announced a co-streaming deal with NBA Brasil and Budweiser (an official sponsor of NBA in the country) that will see him broadcasting NBA games via Twitch beginning Wednesday evening with a doubleheader — the Atlanta Hawks vs. New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks vs. Los Angeles Clippers.
NBA Brasil partnered with Budweiser in February, and since that time it has utilized the partnership to identify new areas of growth, particularly viewers of gaming content and top streamers. Gaules was of particular interest to the league due to his popularity and his regular NBA 2K21 streams, Rodrigo Vicentini, head of NBA Brasil tells TEO’s James Fudge.
“Gaules was truly a natural fit as we identify creative ways to reach younger viewers,” he said. “His content makes fans feel like they’re a part of an immersive experience and we hope to deepen that connection with viewers during his NBA live streams. Gaming has also been a priority of ours for quite some time as its popularity has grown incredibly in Brazil and around the world, so the timing couldn’t be better. As we initiated conversations and gained a better understanding of what Gaules is all about, it became clear our visions were aligned. “
The former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) pro turned content streamer is immensely popular on social media and streaming platforms. He has 715.8K followers on Twitter, 2.7M on Twitch, 629K subscribers on YouTube and is regularly found at the top of TEO’s top channels by hours watched. Riot Games recently signed Gaules to co-stream the Valorant Masters matches on his Twitch channel.
The deal made a lot of sense, Gaules tells TEO’s Victor Frascarelli, because he works closely with Brazilian entertainment firm Omelete, who in turn has an existing relationship with NBA Brazil.
“We had already seen that basketball had many fans in Tribo [what he calls his community] and that it would be an incredible service to provide this content for free for everyone to enjoy, Gaules said. “We took advantage of the relationship that Omelete already had with the NBA to open conversations about the popularization of basketball and they joined us with Budweiser, which brought in the Playoffs rights.”
Gaules added that basketball in Brazil is second in popularity only to soccer and he believes that the “professionalization and quality of the NBA” has contributed to that and will ultimately “attract more and more fans” in Brazil.
Vicentini claims that nearly 44 million people watch NBA content in the country currently and that “in-language, localized content” created across various platforms and social media channels are helping to drive growth.
“This partnership offers opportunities to not only reimagine how fans consume NBA games, but merge their passion for basketball with other sectors such as lifestyle and gaming,” he said.
While Gaules announced that he will have his own special guests during his streams, Vicentini says that the NBA isn’t opposed to helping out on that front in the future: “we’re always looking to enhance the viewing experience and if we identify a potential guest who complement the live stream, we will evaluate that opportunity.”
Finally, while Guales is the first to partner with the NBA, Vicentini sees a future where other content creators in regions around the world will be brought on board, where it makes sense, to help drive growth.
“Gaules is the first streamer we’ve partnered with in Brazil, but gaming will remain a focus of ours moving forward and we’ll continue to explore opportunities in the space if they make sense for us and our fans. He’s the second most popular streamer in the world in terms of watch hours and we look forward to bringing the excitement of the NBA to a wider audience.”
