SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The phenomenal growth of the eSports industry is being looked at from many different business angles at present, especially since the level of success looks near guaranteed to continue.
Vulcun is an American firm based in San Francisco which is leading the way in providing fantasy eSports betting, and moreover offering fans a different platform to engage further with their favourite games. It has a history and much expertise within the industry, having had their very own Team Vulcun compete in, and represent the USA at the 2013 World Championships.
Fantasy sports betting is big business right now with the likes of FanDuel and DraftKings, both major fantasy sports betting operators, valued in the hundreds of millions, and none other than Walt Disney Co. reportedly very close to investing $250m (£159m) in the latter.
We caught up with Vulcun’s own Jared Cooperstein, Partnerships Manager, to discuss their part in the ever expanding eSports universe.
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SBC: Vulcun secured a hefty investment of $12m (£7.6m) from a range of different parties, including Sequoia, in the Series A round of financing. Did the size of the amount surprise you, and in which way was it utilised?
Jared: The size of the round definitely surprised me, I knew eSports was growing at a rapid pace but $12m (£7.6m) in a Series A is a huge amount considering we were only three to four months into launching Vulcun.com.
The funding is being utilised to help grow our team which has grown to over 30 now, as well as marketing and advertising. Keep your eyes peeled too as there’s more stuff in the works.
SBC: You recently had your first individual six figure prize winner, the largest to date in fantasy eSports history; how did it feel, and what does it mean, to have reached this milestone in such a short time?
Jared: Having the first $100,000+ (£63,000+) winner in fantasy eSports on our site was definitely awesome, it’s a big confirmation of the possibility to win large amounts of money on our site.
The other top winners on our site are not to far off from hitting six figures in the coming weeks, check out our winnings page.
SBC: Which games are currently the most popular amongst Vulcunites, and just how popular do you think fantasy eSports can get?
Jared: As of right now its definitely League of Legends and CS:GO, but we have recently added Hearthstone and Call of Duty to our site so we’re waiting to see how that goes. I think fantasy eSports has the potential to be very big; the fantasy space for regular sports is massive and so far we’ve been growing at a very fast pace.
SBC: What has your gameplan been for holding your own against the likes of DraftKings and FanDuel?
Jared: We hold around 75% market share in fantasy Esports right now, so if DraftKings and FanDuel enter the space it will only get more interesting. It definitely goes to show the potential of fantasy eSports if the likes of DraftKings and FanDuel want to join in.
As for a game plan, we’ll keep doing what we’re doing and make eSports more fun to watch
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Jared Cooperstein, Partnerships Manager – Vulcun
