Esports Virtual Arenas (EVA) announced that poker and betting platform Winamax has joined the EVA Pro League as an official partner.

The collaboration coincides with the official launch of EVA’s 2026 competitive season, which aims to elevate the profile of VR (virtual reality) esports from an arcade-style attraction into a structured professional discipline.

Winamax’s move follows a period of expansion into the esports sector over the last months, including sponsorships of teams and news platforms.

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The EVA Pro League’s inaugural season features an elite roster of eight organisations: G2 Esports, Team Vitality, Team Heretics, SK Gaming, GiantX, Shifters, Solary, and OG Esports. The league utilizes a “territorial anchoring” model, where each club is tied to a specific physical arena—such as Team Vitality in Marseille and SK Gaming in Cologne.

Competitors move physically across 500 m² arenas, integrating physical endurance and spatial awareness into the tactical gameplay. The 2026 roadmap includes a €50,000 base prize pool, supplemented by revenue sharing from digital club-themed skins.

Notably, two of the EVA-partnered organisations also hold sponsorship deals with Winamax. The betting platform recently announced separate partnerships with G2 Esports’ League of Legends roster and with Team Heretics. Furthermore, Winamax has expanded into entertainment-crossover competitions, serving as G2’s official partner for the Kings League in Germany.

The company’s strategy in esports is bolstered by the company’s commercial partnership with news platform Sheep Esports, ensuring visibility across both the competitive and editorial landscapes of the industry. The EVA Pro League circuit is scheduled to run through 25 October 2026, concluding with the EVA Summit playoffs.

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