North American scholastic and collegiate esports company PlayVS and media company Urban One announced a new partnership to create a dedicated competitive gaming community for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) nationwide.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The new three-year partnership aims to establish a “dedicated home” for HBCU esports built into the infrastructure of the PlayVS College League ecosystem. PlayVS added that this partnership will combine “Urban One’s cultural authority and its 80 million monthly unique reach, with PlayVS’s collegiate competition infrastructure, creating both visibility and access to scale.”
“Black gamers are among the most influential audiences in the industry, yet Black professionals represent only about 5% of its workforce,” said Tiffany Nasralla, chief revenue officer, Urban One. “The gap isn’t about talent. It’s about access. Through our partnership with PlayVS, we’re using our platform to build a national stage for HBCU students, expanding visibility, structured competition, and real pathways into the industries they’ve long helped define. This is about turning cultural influence into lasting opportunity.”
PlayVS said that the partnership will create a league available to any HBCU looking for a place to compete, with registration beginning this fall and the official season of competition launching in February 2027. A lot of the legwork to make this work will begin in the Spring and Summer, with PlayVS beginning outreach to HBCU institutions that want to participate. The National HBCU Esports Community will formally launch early next year, establishing a “structured, national competition platform for participating institutions.”
Urban One will advise PlayVS during this process and amplify the initiative through its content distribution network and media platforms.
Finally, PlayVS will host the PlayVS College League and Invitational Series in the Fall, and will let participating institutions compete within PlayVS College League offerings and in “dedicated HBCU-focused invitational events designed to build competitive momentum and national visibility.”
More details about this new initiative will be released in the months ahead.