I have previously been quite bullish on ESH but I don't think...

I have previously been quite bullish on ESH but I don't think this announcement is the one that will signal a turnaround just yet.

The 50/50 revenue split is nice to see but 50% of 0 is still 0. We need to see actual results from the partnership before we can determine any positive effect out of the deal.

If anything at the moment this just provides us with an idea that they are actually working on things in the background. Interestingly - as stated by other posters - this announcement moves away from what the suggested strategy has been for the past 9 or so months of Buy & Build rather leveraging the already held tournament technology as they previously set out to do.

Maybe this means that there are other things going on in the background that are soon coming to fruition using that planned strategy? Pure Speculation on my part here.

What is true is that communication has been broken at best over the past year and it does make it hard to trust that things are moving along in the background. Deals like these do take time and maybe this is the first step to getting back on track.