WFS Market Spotlight: Esports
By Matt Rung, World Financial Symposiums
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World Financial Symposiums (WFS), recently released a Market Spotlight webcast on Esports. The spotlight highlighted trends and M&A activity in the Esports industry and featured two industry-expert panelists: Chris Park, CEO of Gen.G and Dan Fiden, President of Cloud9 — the largest Esports organization today. The webcast was hosted by Jim Perkins, an expert in the gaming industry and current senior deal maker of the Corum Group, a sell-side M&A advisory firm.
Market Spotlights is a webcast series produced by World Financial Symposiums (WFS) examining Tech M&A activity within niche technology markets. Below is an excerpt from the most recent spotlight on Esports, from Sept 26, 2019.
Click here to view the webcast on demand.
- Esports is in the same growth phase as video games were in the ‘80s
- Esports is moving rapidly westward from Asia
- The industry is quickly catching up to the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL in terms of prize pools, viewership and total revenue
- Total industry revenue estimated at over $1B is wildly underestimated according to industry leaders
- Huge opportunities for M&A exist in the large, complex esports ecosystem, including team investment, infrastructure, analytics, marketing, and everything else involved in running esports events online and in-person
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About Gen. G
- Based in South Korea, Gen. G is a global esports organization that owns and operates teams and franchises in the top esports leagues in the U.S., South Korea, and China.
- According to Forbes, Gen.G is now one of the world's top 10 most valuable esports companies.
- Offers wide range of professional services, including premier coaching and training, lifestyle management and business acumen development.
- Gen.G has partnered with a range of great venture firms and technology leaders who are particularly interested in bridging the U.S. and Asia.
- Mission is to connect passionate gamers in the East and West and help young fans and athletes get ahead in their lives through gaming and esports.
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About Cloud9
- Founded in 2013, Cloud9 is an esports team ownership organization. They own and operate 14 different esports teams, and each of those teams compete in a different professional video game league.
- At this time, Cloud9 fields professional teams in League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, Apex Legends, Hearthstone, Super Smash Bros Melee, Rules of Survival, Rocket League, PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS, and World of Warcraft.
- Provides coaching, player management, content creation, and monetization services.
- Recently announced a multi-year partnership with Microsoft. The partnership will be focused on “develop[ing] new tools and technologies that will enable Cloud9 players and staff to uncover game-changing insights across a variety of titles in which Cloud9 competes.”
Click here to view the webcast on demand.
About World Financial Symposiums
World Financial Symposiums (WFS) is an international organization dedicated to educating technology leaders. Renowned as the pre-eminent networking facilitator, WFS organizes and promotes forums, seminars and conferences for CEOs, CFOs, corporate investors and other deal participants for software and IT industries worldwide, with the intent to educate and encourage deal flow among industry colleagues. The firm’s one-day, flagship symposium, Growth and Exit Strategies for Software and IT Companies, is held around the world throughout the year and the 30-minute Market Spotlight Series webcasts are held monthly. Visit www.wfs.com to see our schedule of upcoming events or to view previous Market Spotlights on demand.