• by Shankar Gupta , June 21, 2006

Major League Gaming, a professional video gaming league, has signed five of its top players to exclusive, multi-year contracts to compete in the league's circuit events, including a high-profile November tournament. Mobile phone company Boost Mobile has signed on as one of the sponsors, as has beverage brand Red Bull.

The league will promote the personalities of the signed players by distributing interviews and footage from their games through its Web site, and through Boost Mobile phones. The group also will highlight the players during a televised broadcast of the November games--the first such event to be shown on national TV.

One player, Tom "Tsquared" Taylor--who has been featured in Stuff magazine and an MTV True Life documentary--signed a three-year contract for $250,000. The other four were paid $1 million total for a three-year exclusive contract.

The value of the contracts is in part an annual salary, and in part guaranteed sponsorships from the major sponsors of the league's pro tours, including Red Bull and Boost Mobile. "Any pro league is ultimately about its stars, it's about who are the stars of the league," said the league's President and Chief Operating Officer Matthew Bromberg. "What we're really trying to do is create a new generation of professional video gamers that everybody in the world is going to know about."