A Day at the Park — XSET and Red Sox Talk Fenway Park Event
XSET and the Boston Red Sox teamed up to bring the world of gaming into traditional sports. XSET, which is a professional esports and entertainment organization based in Boston, has partnered with the Boston Red Sox, one of the most storied franchises in Major League Baseball. In an effort to bring more interest in baseball to the younger generation, this collaboration between the two brings the world of gaming to baseball.
XSET has rosters that compete in Fortnite, Rocket League, Call of Duty: Warzone, Call of Duty: Mobile, PUBG Mobile, Madden NFL, Apex Legends, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, Halo Infinite and iRacing. On July 5, they had XSET Days at Fenway Park, which consisted of a video game set up and a special XSET customized jersey designed by XSET Co-Founder Wil Eddins.
Jerseys were handed out before the game on a first-come, first-serve basis and ticket holders were able to check out the XSET gaming lounge in The 521 Overlook before and during the Red Sox game.
"We had hundreds of fans purchase tickets for XSET night to be included in the festivities and receive the promotion. Of that audience, 42% were new patrons to our ticketing ecosystem. That’s a great metric and a bit above average for our promotional events."
-Travis Pollio at Red Sox
XSET went to the MLB office in New York City and had a great conversation with them. With XSET being in Boston, it was a perfect fit to start with the Red Sox.
"I think this is just a start, and I think we can do a lot of cool things and unique things in the IRL space and also in the digital space to intertwine gaming and traditional sports in unique ways. We're definitely having conversations with the MLB and with the Red Sox. This is the start, but how do we continue to innovate and provide experiential activations in the digital world and the physical world, as well as a wide range of different things that are in the works with XSET, the Red Sox and the MLB."
-Nick Nocera at XSET
"A colleague had a contact with the leadership team at XSET, and when we were looking to put this together, we reached out to XSET on the collaboration, and they were interested. It made the combo even better that they are based out of Boston, MA."
-Travis Pollio at Red Sox
One of the goals for traditional sports teams has been getting younger fans through the doors to attend games, and continuing the passion of the older generation has been an issue around traditional sports, specifically the MLB. Nocera goes on to talk about how "the average fan is 50 years old, and we need to create different experiences to attract the younger generation." Bringing gaming together with baseball, especially teams like the Red Sox, is something we could see a lot more throughout traditional sports.
"We see gaming as an experience that will make that happen. We initially said let's do something cool with creating a Jersey, which Will Edens, our Co-Founder, created a really cool Jersey with the Red Sox and XSET. Let's create an on-site activation. They've seen our gaming lounges at Trey's Nightclub in Las Vegas at Big Night Live in Boston and they asked, how can we make something similar to that?"
-Nick Nocera at XSET
XSET brings a whole new aspect to not just the gaming industry but many other aspects of entertainment. Anywhere from music to traditional sports, they have many different unique talents throughout their team.
"They (XSET) come from all backgrounds of different industries, from music, the liquor industry, and entertainment, the unique set of people that we have at the table isn't just traditional sports. We weren't founded off of one content creator or content creator group. I think that one of our competitive advantages is that we weren't found off of one person or one group, we were found off of values."
-Nick Nocera at XSET
At Fenway Park, if you purchased a ticket, many received the collaborative limited edition Red Sox XSET Jersey and then got access to the gaming lounge, which was a very unique experience within an area in Fenway Park. They had ten gaming setups, with PS5s provided by Sony. They also had a DJ that played music throughout the venue.
XSET had eight different content creators that attended the event, allowing fans to play with professionals, which is something very unique that not a lot of fans get to do a lot. There was also content on the field for our creators before the game.
"The goal for any of our promotional events is to reach out to a new audience of fans that may not already be a baseball fan. The best comment I can hear from a fan that is attending one of our promotions is that they have never been to Fenway before or haven’t been in a long time. That means that we are providing opportunities for fans to come to the ballpark in a way that is familiar and interesting to them, and hopefully, they come back again in the future."
-Travis Pollio at Red Sox
This included Justin Turner, one of the Red Sox stars, where they did a 'Pros and Joe's matchup. They did a Home Run Derby on 'MLB The Show '23' where the Pro would pitch to the Joe and vice versa to declare a winner.
Gaming and lifestyle are starting to go hand and hand throughout not only the average person's day but athletes in traditional sports as well.
"Athletes have stressful lives, and they have a lot of pressure to perform on the field. Speaking just on the athlete side, gaming is something that's a release for them. After their games and their stressful lives, they can go and play video games. One of our creators, Javan Jean Baptiste, who was an Ohio State football player that recently transferred to Notre Dame, I always remember when I was first speaking with him, I'd ask him, what do you love so much about gaming? He would say, Ohio State, big football, a lot of pressure and after practice or after games, when I get behind the controller, I feel like I go into a different world and all that stress and pressure of the real world goes away, and I get to just be in the zone playing games and not think about all of that."
-Nick Nocera at XSET
There's no doubting the lives that athletes live are stressful, surrounding the need to perform and train at the highest levels. Not just athletes but your average person goes through it as well, with gaming being an outlet for many.
XSET and the Red Sox are making waves in bridging a gap from traditional sports to gaming, bringing that healthy lifestyle to the forefront of fans and athletes.
"We have a lot of athletes on XSET's roster like Zeke Elliott. They authentically are gamers and they love gaming, and nowadays, gaming touches every aspect of your life as you grow up. It's an outlet to express yourself and connect with people in the digital space. This is one of the orgs at the forefront of figuring out how you really merge gaming and traditional sports. Things like this activation with the Red Sox and Partnership is one of those first steps. How can we how can be the funnel to the next generation of fans? A lot of these traditional sports are losing fans because gaming is becoming so big and these gaming orgs are the funnel and the connective tissue between traditional sports and the next generation of fans."
-Nick Nocera at XSET
