This Week in Esports
Esports organizations valuations are released by Forbes
[Update] League of Legends Worlds
We’re down to the semi-finals for the League of Legends World Championship. The first match up will be on Saturday with the Vegas favorites, Invictus Gaming, against the Europe play-in team G2 Esports. In Sunday’s match up we have Cloud9 taking on Fnatic. Cloud9 is coming off a dominating performance against Freecs where Cloud9 won 3–0. Cloud9 has also signed Blue Buff to their official roster after a short trial period. He was a substantial part to their resounding win over Freecs in the quarter-finals. Cloud9 is also the first North American LoL team to make it to the semi-finals in Worlds history. With G2 and Fnatic making the semi’s we have two of the three Europe teams rounding out the top four. Invictus will represent China in the semi-finals.
Esports Organizations Are More Valuable Than You Think
According to Pitchbook data, in 2008, there were only 6 deals for esports organizations worth $34 million. In 2017 there were 74 deals, worth an astonishing $1.52 billion. That’s 1233% increase in deal flow and a 4470% increase in money invested. The top five esports organizations are valued at a combined $1.04 billion:
Cloud9: $310 million
TSM: $250 million
Team Liquid: $200 million
Echo Fox: $150 million
OpTic Gaming: $130 million
TSM is the only known cash-flow positive organizations as many of these franchises are investing heavily into their rosters and building out facilities — hence the massive influx of cash into these organizations.
First Steph Curry, now Drake
Big names outside of esports continue to join the hype. In July, Steph Curry invested into TSM and now Drake is the co-owner of 100 Thieves. As most esports enthusiasts know, Drake is a video game fan himself, playing with popular streamer Ninja and even offered Ninja $5k if he clutched a Fortnite win (spoiler: he clutched the win). Drake joins producer Scooter Braun as co-owners and helped 100 Thieves round out their Series A. Digging into their press release, 100 Thieves describes themselves as a “lifestyle, apparel, and esports brand.” Drake may not be the first person that comes to mind to run an esports organization, but he does have brand building experience.
Live Esports Betting is Coming to the US
Unikrn, the esports live-betting platform, has been given its wagering license approval from the Isle of Man to begin offering users to legally gamble on competitive video games. Unikrn has already rolled out a plethora of products but will now begin the rollout for esports wagering in Europe, South Korea and other Asian countries, and parts of Latin America. Only certain types of esports betting will be available in the US. According to Unikrn CEO, Rahul Sood, “There is finally a legitimate, regulated operator in the space that has a pretty comprehensive offering.” One obvious issue with this is determining who will regulate gamers that bet on themselves and make sure that matches are not fixed. If the rollout is smooth, and Unikrn is able to mitigate any of the typical betting risks, this could have a huge impact into the under-monetized esports audience.
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