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Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari Inc, has joined blockchain gaming group Global Gaming Technologies as its new chief executive and chairman, which will come into effect immediately.
Bushnell has previously held the position of CEO at blockchain games developer X2 Games Corp, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Global Gaming. In addition to this, Bushnell is also the founder of Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre chain, as well as being one of the first inductees into the Video Game Hall of Fame.
Mr. Shidan Gouran, President of Global Gaming commented, “The appointment of Nolan to the board of directors will enable Global Gaming to build a stronger footing in the ever-growing interactive gaming space and we look forward to his many years of leadership and experience within the gaming industry that he brings.”
The new appointment comes alongside the announcement that the online casino operator will be growing its esports portfolio through the acquisition of Videre eSports Corp for an aggregate purchase price of £6.5m ($8.58m).
The Vancouver-based platform will be integrated with a Global Gaming subsidiary, maintaining the name of Videre, while a uniquely developed esports betting platform developed by Videre will be integrated into Global Gaming.
As part of the acquisition, Global Gaming is to issue 428,865,080 common shares – at an agreed price of $0.02 per share – in exchange for all of the issued and outstanding common shares in Videre
Pending the completion of the acquisition, the former shareholders of Videre on a collective basis will own 37.19% of the issued and outstanding share capital of Global Gaming. None of the former individual shareholders of Videre will hold more than 10% of the issued and outstanding share capital of Global Gaming.
Bushnell commented on the acquisition: “eSports is the future. Young audiences, large prize pools and thousands of entertaining games attract crowds to stream and attend these events.
“The growth of the eSports sector has been fuelled by the rapid adoption of technology among millennials, the general rise in all types of online gaming and games’ winning combination of competitive sport and Hollywood-style entertainment.
“Using the Videre platform through the games we are currently developing will be an exciting prospect and provide for synergies in the years of our company to come.”
