Meet the dynamic duo taking the online chess world by storm: 24-year-old Alexandra Botez and her 18-year-old sister, Andrea.
The pair, known online as the Botez sisters, signed as content creators and streamers officially representing Texas-based esports organization Team Envy.
Envy, with the Botez sisters signed on as its inaugural talent, is launching a creator network and ambassador program that will expand to feature diverse cultural and gaming personalities in 2021.
Alexandra Botez is one of only a handful of women in the world to achieve the rank of Woman FIDE Master in chess and was the first female president of the Stanford University Chess Club.
She and Andrea, who both recently relocated to Austin, Tex., regularly live stream chess matches and other gameplay to thousands of online viewers on Twitch.
The sisters also operate the BotezLive YouTube channel, where they share chess tips, gameplay challenges and lifestyle content to nearly 200,000 subscribers.
Chess itself is enjoying a renaissance in 2020, fueled by the popularity of Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit and personalities like the Botez sisters that bring a charismatic and fresh approach to competitive play.
Leading online chess platform Chess.com added 2.8 million new users in November 2020, an all-time monthly high, and unit sales of chess sets grew more than 87% in the U.S. in recent weeks according to market research firm NPD Group.
“The Botez sisters are the most entertaining creators in chess right now, and they’ve played a major role in popularizing the game on Twitch,” said Andrew Peterman, chief content officer at Envy Gaming. “Signing Alexandra and Andrea to launch our new Envy creator network is about much more than chess, however. It’s about giving people access to the personalities that represent the future of entertainment.”
Envy Gaming, one of the winningest gaming organizations in the world and the parent company of popular esports teams the Dallas Empire, the Dallas Fuel, and Team Envy, plans to develop original content series in partnership with the sisters and integrate Andrea and Alexandra into video content, livestream competitions and more.
The sisters will also host regular programming for EnvyUS, the recently launched membership program providing exclusive access to Envy fans.
“We want to show people who don’t play chess that it is an exciting game with a vibrant scene, and we loved that Envy approached us about building bridges between a competitive environment like chess and the world of esports, music, pop culture, you name it. That future is what we love about being part of Envy,” said Alexandra Botez.
BotezLive streams have drawn as many as 36,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch, with more than 560,000 cumulative viewing hours of BotezLive streamed content watched over just the last 30 days. In that same time period, Twitch estimates more than 15,000 people are watching Chess streams at any given time.
“The best chess players are part skilled competitors and part master entertainers, which is exactly what we try to bring to our brand and viewers,” said Andrea Botez.
Evolved Talent Agency and Brillstein Entertainment Partners consulted on the partnership between Envy Gaming and the Botez sisters.
Andrea and Alexandra Botez will celebrate their partnership with Envy Gaming during a takeover of Envy’s social media channels on Wednesday, December 23. Follow @Envy on Twitter and @TeamEnvy on Instagram for more information.
