Esports Fantasy Startup Raises $40 Million

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Techcrunch: “FanClash, a two-year-old Indian startup, is attempting to bring esports such as sleeper hit titles PUBG Mobile, COD and DOTA 2 to this fantasy sports world. Investors are predicting that this model and the FanClash team will deliver, and said on Friday they have poured $40 million of fresh funding into the startup.”

“As is popular across cricket and football-themed fantasy sports startups, on FanClash, users compete with one another across several popular titles, including Counter Strike: Go, FreeFire and League of Legends, by selecting their favorite players and spinning up made-up teams.”

“We focus only on core esports tournaments. We are not looking into casual games. Our thesis is that the world is seeing the emergence of a new kind of sport, and when there’s a new sport, there will be a data layer and a fantasy layer built on top of it,” said Richa Singh, co-founder and chief executive of FanClash. “These esports have larger following than cricket, but they lack data and fantasy layers.”

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Esports Continues Its Monstrous Growth

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Front Office Sports: “The esports market is anticipated to grow to 29.6 million monthly viewers in the U.S. representing 46% of the total gaming video-content viewers.”

“The esports market is now worth over $1 billion as an industry with 475 million active followers.”

“Europe currently represents only about $138 million of global esports revenues of the total estimated $1.4 billion global revenue in 2022.”

France Issues Ban On English Gaming Terms

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USA Today: “Included in the ban is ‘esports’, ‘pro-gamer’, ‘streamer’, and ‘cloud gaming’. In order those are now ‘jeu video de competition’, ‘joueur professionnel’, ‘joueur-animateur en direct’ and ‘jeu video en nuage’.”

“For those who don’t know, France has various governmental departments dedicated to the ‘purity’ of the French language – ensuring that not too many English (or other, but vastly primarily English) terms enter common usage in French.”

“Of course, the French government isn’t going to be knocking down doors to check people’s homes, but this does make it the law to use those terms as a government official in various contexts – teaching, for example, or documentation/policy.”

Malaysia Opens First Esports-Focused Hotel

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IGN: “Located in the town of Senai in Johor, Malaysia, the SEM9 Senai Esports Hotel boasts luxurious rooms fitted with the latest technological facilities in gaming.”

“Developed and built by the Southeast Asian SEM9 esports organisation and backed by SEAGM and Aiken Digital, SEM9 Senai aims to bring a brand new concept in the gaming and esports field. The hotel is a mere three-minute walk from the Senai International Airport.”

“SEM9 Senai proffers the ultimate in comfort, marrying form and function to meet the toughest of needs of not just the best esports teams worldwide, but also to cater to guests of all kinds with a bevvy of gaming and non-gaming rooms,” said SEM9 chairman Tommy Chieng.

“The entire hotel is fitted with high-speed broadband and mobile internet access, be it via WiFi or cable. Console and mobile gamers won’t feel left out either as there are rooms fitted with a PlayStation 5 and DualSense wireless controllers.”

Are Esports Gamers Athletes? Shaq Thinks So

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SVG: When Shaq was asked whether he considers professional gamers to be athletes, he responded, “I do. And I wanna commend you guys and I’m proud of you guys.” The basketball icon continued, saying, “Athlete means different things, but athlete means here,” pointing to his head. Shaq went on to say that only 15% of being an athlete is physical, with everything else being mental.

“Shaq continued on stating that esports and sports being primarily a mental task leads to esports players retiring at an early age. Shaq pointed out that the shelf life of an esports Athlete is in the 3 to 5-year range, and compared that to the NBA and NFL. This is true, considering some esports players have retired twice by the age of 26. All of this for Shaq to conclude by saying ‘So yes, you guys are athletes. If you guys say you’re athletes I believe you because I can’t do what you do.'”

Academics & Esports Blend At Utah State University

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USU: “Esports are gaining popularity as a spectator sport, and college sports programs are taking notice. Utah State University is taking this opportunity to combine esports and academics through an expanding undergraduate curriculum and growing competitive esports club.”

“We have two classes in esports. The first one is casual esports, where students can come and play games, but they study how they feel inside the game … and also we teach another esports class called developmental esports, where we try to develop students’ skills in certain types of games,” said Ramy Shabaan, an assistant professor of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences at USU.

“Andrew Walker, the department head of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences at USU, said esports has put the university in a unique position to blur the lines between recreation and academics.”

“Esports is certainly a growing space, especially in academia, where we’re still trying to work through what this looks like,” Walker said. “I really love our structure here at Utah State University; it’s a collaborative venture between campus recreation as a club sport, and also with our academic unit. And we both have interesting roles to play.”

Youth Esports League Expanding to High Schools

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The Journal: “Youth esports organization Vanta Leagues has announced it will expand its programming to include high school students beginning this fall, raising the maximum player age to 18 from 14, making Vanta’s free esports set-up guide and league organization structure accessible at no cost to high schools nationwide.”

“Vanta recently partnered with STEM Fuse, a provider of STEM-based digital curriculum to 15,000 U.S. schools whose new esports curriculum includes resources from Vanta Leagues. Schools can use STEM Fuse’s free start guide to quickly start teams and even regional leagues using their own coaches and curriculum; Vanta Leagues offers subscription plans for schools that include team coaching, scheduling, logistics, and more.”

“Currently, Vanta is open to students ages 8–14. Vanta Leagues emphasizes a team-based, holistic environment through their “kid-safe gamer platform, teaching the next generation of gamers how to become outstanding citizens,” the company said.”

Esports Industry Attacked For Lack Of Inclusion

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Euro Gamer: “Chinese-Canadian esports player Biofrost has come out as gay and criticised the industry for its lack of inclusion.”

“In a lengthy tweet from the League of Legends player, he explains the difficulties of coming out in the hostile world of esports and calls for change.”

“I’m not making this announcement because I owe everyone the details of my personal life, but because I want there to be more awareness about the problems our community faces,” he wrote.

“On almost every team I’ve been on, I’ve heard homophobic comments from either my teammates or the staff and felt uncomfortable, even borderline afraid of possibly losing my job if I told the truth.”

“My story is not unique. The gaming industry is rampant with sexism, prejudice, and homophobia. I don’t believe there’s a quick fix, but it starts with us holding ourselves to a higher standard and treating everyone with dignity. We need to educate people in esports of proper conduct within the workplace.”

The Top Esports Companies 2022

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Forbes: “The top ten are now worth an average of $353 million, up 46% from 2020, but most are rapidly diversifying their businesses as they face down the industry’s challenges.”

TSM is the most valuable Esports company. It is worth $540 million — this 32% increase since 2020.

Coming right behind TSM is 100 Thieves, whose value sits at $460 million. 100 Thieves saw a whopping 142% increase since 2020. “No team in Forbes’ ranking has appreciated more than 100 Thieves, which was fifth on the 2020 list at $190 million.”

Team Liquid is listed at 3rd place, with its value just behind 100 Thieves’, at $440 million. Team Liquid has seen a 42% increase since 2020.

Want to see the rest? Click here!

New Jersey Esports Betting Projected To Top $10 Billion In 2022

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Tapinto: “eSports wagering will exceed $10 billion in New Jersey for the first time in 2022, according to analysts at Sportingpedia.com. One reason for the growth is the April 4 authorization by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement of Esports Entertainment Group and its VIE.gg platform in time for wagers to place online bets on one of eSports’ most prestigious tournaments – the Mid-Season Invitational 2022 (MSI 2022), scheduled to begin May 10.”

“With New Jersey offering 100% eSports betting beginning this month, bettors have easy access to wagering on one of the fast-growing sports segments,” said Sportingpedia.com lead analyst Glenn Roberts.