Charged Up, Ready To Fly
Lux’s philosophy is to identify non-consensus opportunities and to invest for the long-term. When discussing our portfolio with others, Drone Racing League (DRL) far and away raises the most eyebrows and curious glances. How do you make money in sports? How is building a sport a venture investment? What are the competitive moats? Will people actually engage and become fans? Are these competitors really athletes?
All good questions. We still don’t have all the answers, but the signs are highly encouraging. More than 28 million viewers in the US only for Season 1, more than 70,000 subscribers to the company’s Youtube channel and growing social bases on Instagram and Twitter. The spark of interest is there— it now comes down to maintaining and growing engagement. To the moats and the monies: 18 months young and and the company already has distribution rights with ESPN, SkySports and Prosieben broadcasting in over 75 countries; a pilot with a top Hollywood studio (MGM); a recent merchandise deal (with Toy State) that will bring DRL drones to holiday stockings; and a partnership with Bud Light making the entire planet our talent pool. Gamers can learn to fly on the DRL simulator with the best-of-the-best winning a professional contract to fly in Season 2. It’s a real life video game. There’s no other sport in existence that has been able to do that professionally. From virtual to real — from couch, screen and computer game to 100,000 seat stadium — first person view goggles and 80mph flying robots lit up with LEDs.
I can’t help of think about X Games when growing up in Australia. One of my friends was an epic rollerblader, considered one of the best on the planet. He had no fear, charged incredibly hard and pushed the boundaries for new tricks. He was doing it for fun and then competitions started happening. He had sponsorships but these were minimal and not enough to get by. I dismissed it as fleeting moment in the history of sports. Nothing substantial was really going to happen I thought. Turns out that it was just that my friend was a couple of years too early — and that I didn’t think big and bold enough. X Games was born and continues to grow to this day. This same feeling of being at nascent start of something special can be felt at DRL races nationwide.
Today DRL took another small step. Allianz, a global corporation steeped in history and 127 years old, signed a multi-year multi-million dollar title sponsorship with an 1.5-year-old fledging sport. And now the non-consensus becomes mainstream.
