Skill-based betting platform Players’ Lounge raises $10.5M
Skill-based betting platform Players’ Lounge raises $10.5M
Sharpr is a weekly newsletter covering the intersection of esports and betting
Hey everyone, Cody here.
Do you think you can beat Post Malone in a game of Magic: The Gathering? Well, he’s offering $100K to anyone that can. That person probably isn’t me, unless it was 2005 and the game was Yu-Gi-Oh!–then you can count it.
In the news this week, we see an eight-figure investment in the skill-based esports betting sector with Players’ Lounge courting a lofty $10.5M investment to evolve its platform. We walk our readers through that piece of news and provide a breakdown on this segment of the industry, as well as the extensive list of companies that play a part in it.
A lot to sink your teeth into this week, so let’s jump right in.
In this week’s edition of Sharpr…
Skill-based betting platform Players’ Lounge raises $10.5M
LOOT.BET has launched an Isle of Man-licensed online betting platform
Latest headlines and industry data
If this newsletter was forwarded to you, please consider subscribing.
Skill-based betting platform Players’ Lounge raises $10.5M
Players’ Lounge, the skill-based betting platform that allows users to wager against others in head-to-head matches, has raised $10.5M in a Series A funding round.
The funding round was led by Griffin Gaming Partners (investors in Discord and Polygon), with additional participation from Comcast Ventures, Samsung Next, True Capital, and others.
Players’ Lounge says it will use the cash infusion to expand the platform to new games, such as Call of Duty, Fortnite, and more.
The company also plans to launch a mobile app in Q3 2022.
In an interview with GamesBeat, CEO and co-founder Austin Woolridge says the app will allow players to compete in “challenges” to win prizes, not just against other gamers in a head-to-head capacity.
“The new app allows you to win money playing casually against a lobby that has no idea you have money on the line … complete challenges to win money, simple as that,” Woolridge added.
Players’ Lounge launched its platform in 2016, and received a $3M in investment from high-profile names such as Drake, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, Comcast, and former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. In 2019, the company said its players earn “millions of dollars” on the platform every month.
🦈 Sharpr Take: While esports is struggling to take off in regulated markets with fixed-odds betting, its skill-based counterpart has continued to show the perhaps underappreciated opportunity in this segment. Players’ Lounge investment is a testament to that promise, but it’s far from the only players in the space.
The NASDAQ-listed company Skillz is often first to mind as one of the most successful operators in this sector. The competition platform, which specializes in mobile games, hosts more than 500,000 multiplayer tournaments a day where users can buy-in for anywhere between $0.50 to $20 and win hundreds of thousands in prize money.
Skillz revenue was down a whopping 22% from the previous quarter, the company revealed yesterday in a financial report, but still earned a noteworthy $73M.
In March, Esports Entertainment Group hosted an in-person skill-based esports wagering event at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, where attendees bet on themselves in 1-vs-1 matches of Madden NFL.
In 2018, Unikrn (acquired by Entain last year) launched UMode, a player-vs-house betting feature where users could wager against themselves in games such as Fortnite, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Dota 2, and win cash based on their performance.
While the approach to skill-based betting in esports varies, there seems to be no shortage of companies trying to take hold of this market. A few notable callouts of those platforms include:
Challenger, which secured a seed investment round led by SeventySix Capital.
1v1Me, which raised $2M in capital from a range of investors, including Erik Torenberg and Anthony Pompliano.
Matcherino, which courted $2.7M from investors including Team Liquid parent company aXiomatic, for its crowdfunding tournament platform.
For Players’ Lounge, its planned app should be a nice addition to the platform, especially as gaming continues shifting to our increasingly-more-powerful smartphones, where mobile gaming now makes up 60% of market share.
The so called in-game challenges referenced are not entirely clear, but could be likened to other player-vs-self betting frameworks we’ve seen in the past. At the very least, it sounds like an interesting evolution for a company with a fresh round of funding and a pursuit to keep growing in a very competitive market.
🗞 In the news
LOOT.BET has launched an Isle of Man-licensed online betting platform.
GRID teased a collaboration with KRAFTON, publisher of battle royale title PUBG: Battlegrounds.
GG.bet unveiled a new feature that provides users with personalized betting recommendations.
Anthony Gaud talks esports betting in New Jersey and more with Yogonet.
📈 By the numbers
The global video games market is predicted to hit $197B in 2022.
Game industry M&A transactions saw a 262% uptick, not including blockbuster deals from Microsoft, Take-Two, and Sony.
An additional $5B would be unlocked in tax revenue by legalizing iGaming across the country.
Endeavor is set to purchase OpenBet for $800 million.