Esports and gaming agency Unlocked is expanding its presence at IBC this year with a speaker programme spanning all four days of the show. Led by Co-Founder Steven Leunens, Unlocked aims to bridge the gap between traditional broadcasting media and the rapidly evolving world of esports.
Steven Leunens has been deeply involved in gaming and esports for nearly two decades. His journey began in 2004 when he founded his own gaming team, which quickly grew into one of the largest Call of Duty (CoD) communities in the world. After selling this venture in 2008, Leunens shifted his focus to the event business within the industry, laying the foundation for what would eventually become Unlocked. Today, Leunens serves as the Co-Founder of Unlocked, a company dedicated to connecting brands with the Gen Z and Millennial audiences through innovative marketing and event strategies in the gaming and esports industry.
“We create all kinds of experiences to make sure that the audience that loves esports gets the message and gets it in a way that is true to their nature as a gamer,” says Leunens. “We create virtual worlds where they can engage with the brands that they want to, that want to reach them, but in a very natural way. We try to make marketing about experiences and make it exciting for the audience - not just a plain ad being slapped in your face by the latest in a long line of competitors trying to grab your attention.”...
You are not signed in
Only registered users can read the rest of this article.

MPTS 2025 reveals a media industry struggling to keep pace
MPTS 2025 is the latest event to lay bare the faultlines running throughout the TV business which is being eviscerated by AI and the creator economy.

Modern MAM: Manual archives to AI-driven systems
What was once a process of physically storing film reels and manually logging footage has become an intricate dance of digital ingestion, advanced metadata tagging, and cloud-based workflows. With productions now generating thousands of hours of video per show, managing media efficiently is no longer optional; it’s a necessity.
DTG Summit: “We are living in the age of distraction”
DTG’s annual summit explored personalisation, AI, and the canny ways broadcasters have leveraged Roblox, YouTube and TikTok on their transition from transmission to streaming.

MAX-R: Interoperable tools for an immersive future
The MAX-R Pipeline initiative looked to define and demonstrate a complete workflow of tools for making, processing and delivering maximum-quality XR content in real time. James McKeown reports on the project’s evolution and legacy.

Creative Cities Convention: Concern and caution expressed by UK TV over tariff threat
Trump’s tariffs and diversity rollback hijacked the agenda at the Creative Cities Convention where creators were also prominent.