Esports Business Review
Dates: Oct 3–9
Premier League launches esports league with EA
This new Esports league, the ePremier League, will focus on UK-based gamers. This marks the first time in esports history that gamers will be able to compete with their favorite Premier League teams. Gfinity, the esports tournament organizer, got the nod to run this tournament with Sky Sports given the broadcasting rights. This is the second major tournament Sky Sports will get to broadcast — the first being the CS:GO London Majors. The tournament will be structured by having each of the 20 Premier League teams holding their own tournaments. These team-by-team tournaments will be used to determine one Playstation 4 and one Xbox one player to represent each club.
Varjo Raises $31M in Series B Round
Varjo, the VR startup from Finland that claims to have developed a headset capable of “human-eye resolution” has raised $31M in a round lead by Atomico. Their headset will be used in VR (virtual reality) and XR (mixed reality) and can produce a resolution of 50 megapixels per eye — more than 20x versus commercial headsets. According to Varjo CEO Urho Konttori, they will be targeting industrial use-cases like aerospace, manufacturing, and construction, just to name a few. Varjo has worked with 20th Century Fox, Airbus, Audi, BMW, VW, and Technicolor.
Tencent to invest $317.6M in Bilibili shares
On October 3rd, Tencent and Bilibili announced the agreement for Tencent to buy 25,063,451 shares of Bilibili stock at $12.67 per share. Bilibili represents the iconic brand of online entertainment with a mission to enrich the everyday life of the young generations in China. Their website first launched in June 2009 and was officially named ‘‘bilibili’’ in January 2010. They have evolved from a content community inspired by anime, comics and games (ACG) into a full-spectrum online entertainment world covering a wide array of genres and media formats, including videos, live broadcasting and mobile games. In Bilibili’s most recent quarterly update, profit has grown 76% annually — 77% of that coming directly from gaming. Bilibili believes gaming revenue will drop to 50% in three to five years as more revenue comes from live streaming, value-added services, and digital ads.
Madison Square Garden splits into 2 businesses
In the middle of 2019, Madison Square Garden’s will have officially spun out their sports division into two separate publicly traded companies. MSG just released that they filed a confidential Form 10 registration with the SEC. The two companies will be a sports entity and a live entertainment company. The sports entity will own the New York Knicks (NBA), New York Rangers (NHL), New York Liberty (WNBA), Knicks Gaming (NBA 2K Team), and Logic Gaming (Esports Organization). The live entertainment company will reportedly launch with $1 billion in cash and a thirds ownership of the sport entity. The live entertainment entity will own Madison Square Gardens, Radio City Music Hall, Becon Theatre, Hulu Theatre, the Forum, the Chicago Theatre, and the Wang Theatre. Both entities will reportedly have interests in Esports.
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