Tag: eSports

Fnatic, a leading global esports brand, today announces that it has raised $10 million in an internal round led by Beringea with participation from existing investors Unbound, LVL1 Group, JHD as well as key management. The funding will be used to support the global growth of its pioneering esports brand and drive the success of its leading high-performance teams. Fnatic has now raised nearly $35 million across its various funding rounds.

Building on the momentum of this investment round, Fnatic has also announced that it has launched a crowd equity campaign with Crowdcube, the world’s largest crowdfunding platform. Through this campaign, Fnatic will provide a unique opportunity for its growing fanbase to invest in the business and play a part in its mission to seek out and level up the next generation of gamers. This campaign offers a chance for its fanbase to help shape the future of Fnatic.

“We’ve been looking to conduct a crowdfund campaign for a while,” said Sam Mathews, founder and CEO of Fnatic. “This investment provides the perfect opportunity for our community, friends and enthusiasts to join our established investors and own a piece of Fnatic. Crowdfunding is a dynamic and increasingly popular way to fundraise as it provides an opportunity to transform our active and engaged community into investors by giving them the chance to get closer to our journey than ever before. We’re very excited to be working directly with our audience, partnering with them to shape the future of Fnatic, and of entertainment, sports and gaming performance.”

This crowdfunding campaign reflects Fnatic’s ambition to innovate and continuously enhance gaming performance while making it accessible to all. The proceeds of this campaign will be directly allocated to initiatives that will foster the advancement of Fnatic’s mission to seek out and level up the next generation of gamers.  Esports viewership and gaming has boomed in the past year, and this campaign offers investors the opportunity to both support a leading global esports brand and to play an active role in furthering the growing esports movement.

This past year saw viewership of esports skyrocket. Over the past three years, Fnatic has been ranked consistently as one of the most viewed teams among western esports fans and is the second most watched team of 2020 with over 110 million hours watched, to date. As one of the most globally recognised and successful esports brands with total cash winnings nearing $16 million across 903 tournaments, Fnatic continuously sets the bar through community activations and innovative brand partnerships with world renowned brands such as BMW, Gucci, OnePlus, AMD, Monster, Hisense and more.

“Esports is an industry experiencing explosive growth, and yet in many ways is still in adolescence,” said Karen McCormick, Chief Investment Officer of Beringea. “Having evaluated the industry from many angles, Fnatic was a relatively simple investment decision given the premier status of the brand, consistency as a true performance company, and growth and engagement of the fan base. The business has also become a global leader in a very capital efficient way, building a standout team while maintaining a clear focus on economics and profitability.”

Since Crowdcube was founded in 2011, it has helped more than 1,120 raises successfully fundraise. With more than 900,000 members, a total of £1bn has invested on the platform to date. In good company, notable businesses that have successfully raised through Crowdcube include Revolut, BrewDog, Monzo, Carwow, Freetrade and Mindful Chef. Fnatic plans to raise £1 million ($1.3m) through this campaign, which will be open to the public on November 19th. For more information, please visit https://invest.fnatic.com

Former Virtus.pro first Dota 2 roster players Alexey «Solo» Berezin, Vladimir «No[o]ne-» Minenko and Bakyt «W_Zayac» Emilzhanov are leaving the club.

Sergey Glamazda, CEO of Virtus.pro: “We know that the players want to participate in tournaments right now, so we came to a mutual agreement and yesterday was their last day in Virtus.pro. The guys have been bringing us unforgettable emotions and sense of pride for CIS Dota scene for several years. They went down in esports history for sure. We are thankful to the players for their enormous contribution to Virtus.pro and wish them to reach the desired goal at The International.”

With Solo and No[o]ne- in Virtus.pro, the team won 16 tournaments, including 5 Majors, and placed 5-6 at TI twice. Being a part of Virtus.pro Bakyt «W_Zayac» Emilzhanov became the ESL One Los Angeles 2020 Online champion and won Parimatch League Season 3.

Espo, the fan engagement platform that rewards collaboration between world-class esports teams, players, fans and sponsors, has expanded its roster of team partners with the addition of 3 international organizations: Built By Gamers, Team BDS and BOOM Esports.

All three teams will join F2K, GODSENT and Team Queso in running a series of monthly campaigns on the Espo platform where esports fans can unlock and redeem an ever-changing variety of exclusive Fan Perks offered by their favorite teams and players.

The addition of Built By Gamers, Team BDS and BOOM Esports is a further expansion of the Espo network for esports fans in North America, Europe and South East Asia. All 3 teams are champions in their respective region and performing at the highest level despite the challenges of competing remotely as a consequence of the global pandemic.

Speaking about the team partnerships, Espo founder and CEO, Henry James said: “I feel like Espo has found the turbo button when it comes to the interest we have been receiving from a number of the most competitive and popular esports teams. Take a closer look at these teams and you’ll see they deploy killer strategies in-game and in the board room. 

“Our Team Partners support our vision to bring esports fans closer to the action and they are the pioneering teams working collaboratively with our Brand Partners to provide reward-based fan engagement.” 

Built By Gamers founder and CEO, Todd Searle, said: “We are excited to partner with Espo as it provides a crucial solution to the esports world. For BBG, providing unique opportunities for fans to engage with their favorite players is a priority. Espo will bridge that gap while also allowing brands and other partners to participate. This is an important step in the evolution of our brand.” 

Team BDS executive director, Renaud Pierre Baijot said: “We are beyond excited to start working with Espo. They will help us bring Team BDS to a whole new level by helping us engage with fans and secure key partnerships with international brands.” 

BOOM Esports CEO, Gary Ongko Putera said:  “We are excited to be joining Espo as one of their chosen Team Partners from the region. From day one, the vision and the mission is to become one of the biggest esports brands in the world. This is an exciting new step in achieving our goals with Espo and we will be able to bring BOOM closer to our global fanbase. Can’t wait to start the partnership!” 

Since the announcements, Espo has seen a real buzz of excitement within their community which was only heightened as they revealed some of the Fan Perks that fans can expect to engage with in the coming weeks. VIP team merch, fan-v-fan tournaments, gaming house virtual tours, behind the scenes access to match days, competitions for content creators, giveaways from sponsors and personalized messages from players are just a number of perks fans can look forward to.

The multinational bookmaking holding Parimatch has become an official betting partner of the second season of international esports series EPIC League in Dota 2. The brand will be integrated into the Russian broadcasts of games held by RuHub studio.

Matches of Epic Esports Events’ EPIC League will be held in two divisions in the Europe/CIS region from October 29 to December 13. The prize pool of the first division is $500 000, and $50 000 is planned for the second one. First division participants are Virtus.pro, NAVI, Alliance, Team Liquid, Nigma, Vikin.gg, OG и Secret.

Stepan Shulga, head of Parimatch esports division: “The second season of the EPIC League promises to be the hottest event of the year. Perhaps the legendary Virtus.pro players under a different tag will be able to meet with the updated roster. A new era of NAVI is finally dawning. Even Team Secret managed to start their performance at the tournament with a loss, although it was impossible to believe in. We are glad to cooperate with RuHub again at such an amazing tournament and are already preparing some pleasant surprises for the audience.”

Sergey Barkhudarian, commercial director of ESforce Holding: “Over the years of our cooperation, Parimatch has shown itself to be one of the most reliable partners. We are glad to work with a company that is seriously interested in the development of esports — and this is proved by the rich history of our joint activities. We are confident that the second season of the EPIC League will open a new and exciting page in this story.”

Innovative sports betting supplier BETBY has grown its cutting-edge esports Betby.Games range with the addition of Tennis competitions.

With games centred around iconic tennis tournaments, BETBY’s unique AI-driven esports product will feature the world’s top tennis players, and as with other titles in the provider’s collection of games, all markets will be available 24/7.

Each match is set to last up to 40 minutes, as each set lasts just three games rather than the traditional six, while tiebreaks are also shorter than in real life. Three matches will take place simultaneously and over 3,000 events per month and 15 new markets will be to be added to BETBY’s offering.

Tennis joins classic competitions such as Football and Basketball in the supplier’s impressive selection of esports products, as well as innovative Rocket League tournaments, with combat sports also to be launched in the near future.

The supplier’s complete offering continues to go from strength to strength, growing significantly in the previous 12 months as the provider looks to broaden its product portfolio.

Leonid Pertsovskiy, Chief Executive Officer at BETBY, said: “The growth of our Betby.Games range has been a real highlight for us this year and we are delighted to add Tennis to the list of AI-focused competitions in our portfolio.

“Betby.Games products bring a completely new dynamic to the esports world with its enjoyable gameplay, while remaining instantly recognisable for bettors of all tastes.

“Our diverse product offering has continued to bear fruit for us, as well as our client-centric business approach, so the expansion of our Betby.Games offering is something we are very proud of and look forward to more success in the vertical.”

The entire BETBY esports collection can be smoothly and swiftly integrated and active for an operator via an API integration.