A quick news and market / industry research "scrub" to understand what is happening at a high level in eSports.

1. eSports
Quick Market / Industry Research “Scrub”

2. ‹#›
Where does eSports fit in?
What is happening in the space
Gambling Video Game
Sports
Online
Gambling
Sports
Betting
eSports
Sources: IBIS Reports, statista.com, NBC, Venture Beat, Reddit, Forbes, PCMag, Business Insider, Fortune
$43.4B$240B
$26.2B
$250M expected to be
wagered in 2015
Forbes 8/2015
“quest to bring eSports
gambling to the U.S.”
VentureBeat, 6/2015
…And Mark Cuban is an
investor
2014 world League of Legends Tournament
attracted 32 million online viewers and 40,000
in person at Seoul’s World Cup stadium
BBC 10/2014 (Coke sponsored)
“Touting the 2.4 million
Twitch views of
gameplay”
INDUSTRY: ESPORTS
Other online betting sites
outside U.S.
“More 18-24 year old
males watched Major
League Gaming’s Spring
Championship this year
than the Rose Bowl”
Forbes 10/2014
“67 million people play
League of Legends per
month”
“Sold 3.5 million copies
in its first 24 hours”
“e-sports have attracted
more than 350,000 bets
on Pinnacle…this year”
NBC, 11/2014

3. ‹#›
Fun Facts
INDUSTRY: ESPORTS
Sources: Fortune, New York Times, SportsTechie.com, SuperData Research
Redbull’s matches gamers gameplay data and stats with player’s biometrics and team
interactions, such as eye tracking, brain states, heart rate, galvanic skin response, facial patterns, team communication
1st eSports event in Madison Square Garden NYC League of Legends August 2015
134 Mglobal audience for eSports expected to be 335Min 2017
$600Min 2014 expected to be $1Bin 2017 from sponsorships, merchandise sales, and event tickets
Drug Testing coming to eSports in 2016
Activision & Microsoft to give away $5M at professional tournaments for Call of Duty
HBO’s Game of Thrones advertised in-game on League of Legends
Current eSports sponsors include Logitech, Razer, Coke, and Red Bull
16Bminutes watched per month on twitch.tv representing roughly 14 hours for each of the 13MAmerican viewers

4. ‹#›
What major activity is happening in the sporting and gaming space?
Notable gaming and eSport activity ($400M+)
INDUSTRY: ESPORTS
Sources: PCMag, engadget, Bloomberg, digi-capital.com, CB Insights, Venture Beat, Fortune, recode.net
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015*
Disney invests in
Playdom $762M
DeNA (Japan) /
Ngmoco $403M
Tencent /Riot
Games (League
of Legends)
$400M
Zynga IPO
$7.7B Valuation
Nexon IPO
$7B Valuation
Softbank invests
in Supercell
Betfair IPO
$2B Valuation
Electronic Arts /
PopCap
Betfair IPO
$2B Valuation
Microsoft /
Mojang
(Minecraft) $2.5B
Facebook /
Oculus $2B
Private / Giant
Interactive $1.6B
Amazon / Twitch
$970M
Zhongji / FunPlus
$960M
Zynga /
NaturalMotion
$527M
King (Candy
Crush) IPO
$500M Valuation
Zynga’s stock
price crashed
UK and China
30 gaming deals and
$400M of funding
California
$3B deployed across 330+ deals
New York
$280M+ invested in 64 deals
including Major League Gaming
and Oberon Media
2014 Series E+
financing
reached 5 year
high of 15% of
deal share
Similar deals
Weight Watchers /
Hot5
$N/A
Fitbit / FitStar
$15M
eSports company
acquisition
MLB Advanced
Media prepares
spinoff from MLB
$3-5B Valuation
Adidas / Runtastic
$240M
Under Armour /
MyFitnessPal
$150M +
Endomondo
$85M
Alibaba invests in
Kabam $120M
Modern Times
Group / Turtle
Entertainment $87
(Parent / Acquisition Target)
*Added ‘latest eSports related deals to 2015 even if <$400

5. ‹#›
Understanding product landscape of eSports
INDUSTRY: ESPORTS
Sources: CB Insights, Fortune, PopSci Mag, and various news sources
Sample 2x2
Live Remote
Independant GroupViewers
Live RemotePlayer
Key themes for understanding game innovation space
Independant TeamGame Play
Physical VirtualPlaying
Field
Synchronous AsynchronousTiming
Human Artificial
(Intelligence)
Control
of Player
Human RoboticBody
of Player
Physical Virtual
Body of
Player
Human Robotic
Playing
Field
Physical
Virtual
June 2016: America
and Japan to face off
in giant robot combat
Observer 1st PersonViewer
Realistic ArtisticStyle

6. ‹#›
Sample list of eSports start-ups
INDUSTRY: ESPORTS
Sources: CB Insights, company websites
Company Description
Kabam Kabam is an interactive entertainment company founded in 2006 and headquartered in San Francisco, CA. The company develops and publishes massively multiplayer social games, including
Dragons of Atlantis: Heirs of the Dragon and Kingdoms of Camelot.
Trion Worlds American video game developer and publisher, which focuses primarily on MMOs, particularly of the MMORPG and MMORTS genres.
RockYou A company that purchases the rights to classic video games, then incorporates in-game ads and re-distributes them.
Gazillion Gazillion Entertainment is a privately held developer and publisher of free-to-play online games. Our mission is to build breakthrough experiences featuring world class brands and original
franchises, superior production quality and unmatched gameplay.
Linekong Online (Beijing) Entertainment Tech - Linekong Entertaiment is one of the top ten game developers and publishers in China, but also the one with the most potential in growing in the mobile gaming
gumi Japanese video gaming company focusing on animation
Chukong Technologies International mobile entertainment platform company headquartered in Beijing. Chukong maintains four core business practices: game engine development, mobile game development,
publishing, and developer community support
Playdom An online social network game developer popular on Facebook, Google+ and MySpace. Subsidiary of Disney Interactive.
Instant eSports One-stop shop for eSports fans. Follow favorite teams and players, track tournament scores and performance stats, and catch up on the latestes eSports news.
eSports Arena eSports Arena is a network of dedicated eSports facilities that will be able to produce globally broadcasted eSports/entertainment events.
Showdown eSports We supply the best eSports Viewing Parties in the Bay Area.
Splyce eSports Splyce eSports is a gaming company that builds websites to stream information for fans, game developers and event organizers.
NYU Tisch School One-stop shop for eSports fans. Follow favorite teams and players, track tournament scores and performance stats, and catch up on the latestes eSports news.
Global eSports Management Global Esports Management (GEM) is an international organization with offices in Europe, North America and Asia. We work to connect and grow all aspects of the professional gaming industry.
Regroup Esports All operations of the company ESNation A/S have been ceased and all employees including the executive management have been released ultimo February 2009.
Esports Gaming Association E-sports Gaming Association, LLC was established on February 11, 2011 to provide online gamers another league to allow them to take their gaming to another level.
Levels Esports Centre Levels is an e-sports recreational company, planned to launch in Ottawa.
eSportsBuy.com eSportsBuy.com offers an online shopping experience in sports & fitness.
Faceit Offers online tournaments and daily and monthly leagues, and joining the service is free (though it monetizes through 30,000 monthly subscribers paying $5 to $12 a month each)
Zepp Measure aspects of your swing, then analyze and improve. Zepp offers an incredible set of 3D and video analysis features that give you instant feedback.
Thuuz Thuuz enables MVPDs, broadcasters, rights holders, and consumer electronics companies to deliver a cutting-edge sports entertainment experience to their fans by delivering sports meta-data
that is contextual, exciting, informative, and unique.
Strava Strava lets you experience what we call social fitness - connecting and competing with each other via mobile and online apps.
Vulcan Win the Largest Prize Pool in Fantasy eSports. Draft a team and win your share of $10M.
AlphaDraft WIN REAL-MONEY PLAYING FANTASY ESPORTS, DRAFT TOP TEAMS AND WIN CASH - OVER $300,000 PAID OUT EACH WEEK
Unikrn Virtual sports betting platform
Hitbox Interactive gaming platform where users can broadcast their game.
PVP Live A new online-based eSports site and broadcast channel that focuses on statistics and analysis.
Azubu Los Angeles based company streaming live video game competitions. Quadrupled viewership in 2015.
Dingit High-definition eSports streaming platform, launched at the end of February 2015 with 7,000 viewers and grew to over 170,000 viewers by the end of April
Potential Areas twitch.tv mocks (think the Facebook to MySpace), fantasy esports, learning courses)
MostWell-FundedNon-Exited
GamingCompanies