Mentioned in this article
- Gaming talent agency Loaded brings aboard Bridget Davidson as its new vice president of talent.
- Davidson has worked for Riot Games for the last nine years, most recently as senior esports manager.
- Loaded has disrupted the livestreaming market by signing exclusive deals for its talent, including Ninja, Shroud, and CouRage.
Loaded, a management company for gaming personalities has announced the hire of Bridget Davidson as VP of talent. A former manager at League of Legends publisher Riot Games, Davidson will oversee day-to-day operations for Loaded’s talent roster, while developing new relationships and brand partnerships for the company. She will report to Brandon Freytag, co-founder of Loaded and SVP of sales and talent at Popdog.
Davidson joined Riot Games in 2011, and was involved in the creation of the company’s first esports league, the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS). Her tenure included multiple roles in player development and career advancement, as well as Riot’s broader VIP relations. Most recently, she was senior esports manager.
“Loaded is helping today’s biggest gaming talent create new opportunities for themselves, as well as other aspiring and established gamers,” said Davidson, in a statement. “I am excited to work with the team to develop more innovative solutions for our talent and facilitate groundbreaking deals that continue to move the industry forward.”
Acquired by Popdog in 2018, Loaded represents some of the most followed gaming talents. It instigated a “streaming war” between the industry’s top broadcasting platforms, after signing Tyler “Ninja” Blevins to an exclusive multi-year contract with Microsoft’s Mixer platform.
CNN Business reported yesterday that Mixer is paying Blevins between $20M-$30M USD, according to Justin Warden, CEO of Ader, who said he had direct knowledge of the deal. In a statement sent to The Esports Observer, Loaded said “We do not disclose the terms of any agreement for talent. The Ader team has no connection to this specific partnership and therefore any insight regarding the terms of the agreement is pure speculation.”
The agency also signed Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek to Mixer, Jack “CouRage” Dunlop to Google’s YouTube, and a trio of streamers including Benjamin “DrLupo” Lupo, Saqib “LIRIK” Zahid, and Timothy “TimTheTatman” Betar, to multi-year exclusive contracts with Amazon-owned Twitch.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Brandon Freytag as the “CEO” of Loaded. The company also provided a statement regarding yesterday’s CNN Business report, which we have included in the article.