By Neil Doyle
BLOOMINGTON – A top esports athlete made a stop in the Twin-Cities Thursday.
Ben Lupo, 32, or better known as DrLupo to his millions of social media followers and online gamers, visited State Farm’s headquarters in Bloomington. Lupo and the insurer have formed a partnership making him the first esports athlete sponsored by the company.
“I think we have to look at how media and media consumption is changing among the millennial audience,” said Ed Gold, from State Farm’s marketing department. “This audience, 18-34, is not consuming television or radio they way it used to be done. They are getting a lot of their entertainment from YouTube, Twitch, and all of these other media because they have so many choices,” said Gold.
State Farm has traditionally sponsored football, basketball and other sports. Gold said this new audience is consuming many different things.
“We wanted to get something younger and esports appealed to us,” Gold added.
Lupo has been playing video games for 26 years, but just two years ago decided to make esports a full-time job. He is the captain of the prominent esports organization, Team Rogue.
“I used to work in IT at an insurance agency in Omaha, Neb.,” Lupo explained. “When I found out State Farm wanted to sponsor me it blew my mind. It’s the weird coming together of two worlds that I never thought would collide like this in a great way,” said Lupo.
Lupo hosted meet and greets throughout the day at State Farm and streamed for three hours.
He recently hosted a charity stream for St. Jude Children’s Hospital. With a $10,000 contribution from State Farm and many other donations, Lupo raised over $900,000 in 4.5 hours, according to Forbes.
Forbes said there’s a chance it could be the most money raised in the shortest period of time for a gaming charity stream.
Neil Doyle can be reached at [email protected]
