Sim racing-focused esports organization Alpine Esports announced Tuesday a number of partnerships and player signings related to its activities in F1 the competitive sim racing scene. The Renault-backed esports organization announced that it has partnered with Varjo, Tobii, The Tiny Digital Factory, Special Effect, and QANplatform.
Financial terms for these new (and renewed) partnerships were not disclosed.
Varjo, a “virtual and extended reality” (VR/XR) company, has been named Alpine’s official supplier and VR partner, with the company supplying its mixed reality headsets to drivers and fans in its “Alpine Esports Content Room,” a new facility built inside the F1 factory. Tobii, an eye-tracking and performance analytics technology company, will serve as its official supplier, providing its Tobii Eye Tracker 5 software to the Alpine Esports Content Room. The Tiny Digital Factory joins Alpine as the official mobile racing game partner, who will work with the organization across two mobile racing titles (GT Manager and Infinite Drive), to bring its vehicles into the games.
Alpine also announced that it has signed a strategic partnership with blockchain platform QAN to help drive fan engagement as its official blockchain partner. Both companies will work together to create use cases, and QAN will serve as a sponsor of its Alpine Esports Content Room. Alpine will continue to partner with Shamir to provide eye testing for drivers and vision support.
Alpine drivers will also wear a new team kit this season provided by Kappa, the organization’s long-standing official kit supplier.
Last but not least, Alpine announced that it has partnered with UK gaming charity Special Effect, naming it the official charity partner. Alpine will work with Special Effect to “raise funds and awareness of accessible gaming for the physically disabled through charity streams, raising questions about accessible gaming in industry conversations, and work to develop more accessible ways for gamers to access sim racing,” according to a release.
Switching gears, Alpine announced that its fan-focused competition, the Alpine Esports Championship Series, will return in May and will be hosted by Assetto Corsa Competizione and “powered by Binance” (details on that can be found here).
Finally, Alpine announced that drivers Collin Spork, Patrik Sipos, Rubén Pedreño, Luke Smith, Tom Lartilleux, will make up the organization’s driver line-up for the F1 Esports Series 2023. They will be supported by F1 content creators PattyPatt, AnaonAir, and Thomb, who will serve as ambassadors.