• by Teresa Buyikian , March 4, 2024

Smoothie King has announced a jump into the gaming world through a new partnership with OpTic, a competitive esports team and gaming content creator.

The collaboration obviously targets gamers, who are “eager to be fueled for hours of watch parties, entertainment, and gaming,” per the announcement.

“The partnership with OpTic delivers the ultimate better-for-you option for esports athletes -- and their fans -- looking for a protein-packed boost to help stay on top of their game,” added Marianne Radley, CMO at Smoothie King.

As part of the agreement, Smoothie King will serve as sponsor of three Scump Watch Parties, which are hosted online events with Seth Abner (aka Scump), an X Games Gold Medalist and former "Call of Duty" world champion. Scump has more than 2.76 million YouTube followers and his most recent live stream, which clocked in at over four hours long, received more than 300k views within 24 hours.

The collaboration, which kicked off last week, also includes custom branded video content, social posts and Smoothie King’s sponsorship of OpTic’s “Around the Bar “podcast.

The OpTic deal follows on the heels of Smoothie King’s recent 2023 brand update, which reported the company’s largest new development quarter in seven years, with an 11.5% jump in same store sales and positive traffic growth. More than 100 new stores are slated for 2024 in addition to the current total of 1,100-plus nationwide.