Esports

The YouPorn sponsored esports team, Team YP, has been banned by the Electronic Sports League (ESL) as it is in breach of the organisation’s advertising rules.  In a statement issued to VentureBeat by the ESL this was what was said on the matter: “Advertising pornography is not legal in the markets we operate in, and the vast majority of partners …

Late last week the Gfinity app went live on the Xbox One store. The free tournament builder app will allow Xbox players to create and manage their own cups, leagues, ladders and competitions from their console. It’s a significant boost for the UK esports scene, and will have the added bonus of raising the profile of Gfinity’s own LAN tournaments …

The question of the value of club partnerships for both parties was the opener of the daily fantasy sports panel at Betting on Football (#bofcon) on Thursday afternoon.  Oulala Founder Valery Bollier, Sportego Founder Trev Keane, Mondogoal International Director Richard Graham and Fantasybet CEO Viktor Enoksen discussed DFS in Europe in a session chaired by Editec’s Simon Burrell. Mondogoal’s Richard …

The founder of esports agency Stark Esports, Khaled Naim, spoke at #bofcon today on the subject of FIFA as a gateway between football and esports.  Stark has a partnership with VFL Wolfsburg and further deals with a host of Bundesliga clubs including Bayern Munich are also on the cards. The terms of the Wolfsburg deal sees Stark aiding the side’s entrance into …

In a poignant blog post about skin betting on Unikrn published yesterday, co-founder and CEO, Rahul Sood, has highlighted what’s wrong in esports betting, especially in regards to underage gambling and top Twitch streamers who are wagering in-game virtual items that have real monetary value. According to Eilers Research skin betting is close to $5bn (£3.4bn) in terms of money wagered in 2016. …

PwC US has released a report assessing the overall esports industry from a number of different angles with a focus on awareness, viewership and opportunities for companies looking to move into the space. There have been various assessments of the industry’s growing value, and this one states that there’ll be a 43% leap from 2015 to a total revenue of $463m (£321.7m) …

Daily fantasy sports operator Premier Punt was first established in late 2013 and went live in March 2015. Having secured the investment of several local and overseas shareholders, and having acquired a UK licence from the Gambling Commission it’s now looking to press on with a second investment round.  The previous investment round took place in April 2015 and the …

Filing a Nevada District Court appeal, Las Vegas-based betting/gambling technology provider CG Technology (former Cantor Gaming Group) has sued daily fantasy sports (DFS) operators DraftKings and FanDuel on multiple infringements of its patents. CG Technology a specialist in US land based sports betting, claims that the DraftKings and FanDuel products have breached eight of its secured patents. The patent infringements …

Twitch and FACEIT have teamed up to launch a new CS:GO league titled the Esports Championship Series (ECS) with a prize pool of $3.5m (£2.4m). It was revealed last week, via statistics from Newzoo, that esports are responsible for over 21 percent of viewership on streaming site Twitch and with more money being poured into current esports and more titles being developed for competitive gaming …

The UK government has given its backing to the eGames, an international esports event which’ll take place during the Olympics in Rio this summer. Announced by the International eGames Committee (IEGC) earlier this week four countries have already confirmed their involvement; the UK, hosts Brazil, the USA and Canada. In true Olympic style there’ll be no cash rewards for the contestants, …