|
"Major League Gaming secures $11.3M for eSports"
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/165604/Major_League_Gaming_secures_113M_for_eSports.php
New York City-based organization Major League Gaming, which hosts tournaments and events for competitive games in North America, has raised $11.3 million in a new round of funding.
This latest financing, which brings Major League Gaming's total amount raised to nearly $70 million, hints at continued and increasing interest in professional eSports, from both gamers and investors.
...
The company had its biggest year in 2011, as the number of unique visitors during its Pro Circuit Season increased by 225 percent over the previous year. 241,000 people tuned into its Providence National Championships event alone last November.
MLG's latest funding is part of a $13 million targeted round of financing, according to an SEC filing submitted by the company on Monday.
MLG SEC Filing 2012-02-27, Signed 2012-03-12
I hope this signifies recent success and MLG is able to bring in investors showing this growth. Travel costs is the biggest expense right now for teams and if they can keep providing that I look forward to see more players come to NA. Even if they do not win that particular tournament at least they are not going in debt to play for the fans. This is for all eSports, not just SC2. Look forward to it all growing more and more.
Edit Update:
On March 14 2012 06:00 Slasher wrote:Alex of TheNextWeb has written a pretty good perspective of MLG's new money raise, which has a rather hopeful outlook on everything: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/03/13/how-major-league-gaming-went-all-in-landed-on-its-feet-and-raised-millions/Show nested quote +As Sundance said, ‘something came along a little bit quicker than planned.’ I take this as the need to prove to investors that MLG is a viable business, or that the company just needed to raise sooner than they expected. This led to the company needing to prove that its core idea ‘had wings.’ I take Sundance to mean by that statement: ‘will people pay for what we are providing?’ So, the company went ‘all in,’ to see what would happen.
That they transformed their own office into a studio for the event was likely no accident. I would bet that MLG was looking to run the event at the highest level it could, at the lowest cost possible. Therefore, by shaving some some expense by hosting the event themselves, they could provide the same value for viewers, and show a profit, which it could take to investors as proof that competitive gaming is no fantasy.
|
hmmm seems like PPV paid off?
glad to see Esports growing
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
On March 14 2012 03:34 Jiddra wrote:
Who is funding?
Private investors/venture capitalists I have to assume. The sale wasn't public and MLG doesn't offer common stock. Interestingly there is another $1million available for purchase according to that filing.
|
|
|
What is AMBI LLC?
Were they the investors?
|
I'd like to buy Sundance a drink
|
Any chance Sundance will stop doomsaying now?
|
On March 14 2012 03:31 ThatGuy89 wrote:
hmmm seems like PPV paid off?
glad to see Esports growing
No this has nothing to do with PPV, they are referring to Providence in the link.
|
On March 14 2012 03:31 ThatGuy89 wrote:
hmmm seems like PPV paid off?
glad to see Esports growing
no this is a completly baseless assumption, lets assume PPV was horrible what would you do to make it look like success?
Right release press news that you increase the funding but if you really look at these figures it doesn't mean anything really since they actually don't really know what they should do with all the money they made over the last year and deal could have been made way before the mlg.
I'm still very sceptical if the PPV thing was a success they were at least break even for sure but every neutral poll showed that like 70%-80% of the people that would have watched didn't due to PPV. I don't really know if the sponsors did like this.
This news timing seems like another strategical piece towards making people believe it was a great sucess, like the tweet right before MLG saying "PPV preorders exceeded our expactations".
|
This is awesome in every respect... Glad to see PPV worked out.
|
The company had its biggest year in 2011, as the number of unique visitors during its Pro Circuit Season increased by 225 percent over the previous year.
holy shit, THAT IS HUGE growth. regardless of whether arena did well or not, MLG is doing really well.
|
Based on the timing, I'd say this has a lot to do with the recent inclusion of e-sports at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference and the attempt at PPV. Clearly people with means are being swayed by Sundance and the brand that is MLG, and oh how exciting it is.
|
Dominican Republic275 Posts
The recent PPV stuff might have been to convince investors that events of this sort can generate money, thus the success of this round. Or so it would seems :o
|
On March 14 2012 03:40 idonthinksobro wrote:Show nested quote +On March 14 2012 03:31 ThatGuy89 wrote:
hmmm seems like PPV paid off?
glad to see Esports growing no this is a completly baseless assumption, lets assume PPV was horrible what would you do to make it look like success? Right release press news that you increase the funding but if you really look at these figures it doesn't mean anything really since they actually don't really know what they should do with all the money they made over the last year and deal could have been made way before the mlg. I'm still very sceptical if the PPV thing was a success they were at least break even for sure but every neutral poll showed that like 70%-80% of the people that would have watched didn't due to PPV. I don't really know if the sponsors did like this. This news timing seems like another strategical piece towards making people believe it was a great sucess, like the tweet right before MLG saying "PPV preorders exceeded our expactations".
An SEC exempted securities form and a tweet are quite possibly some of the most different things I've ever imagined. Are you serious?
|
*paging business experts*
So.. with seamingly all of their revenue coming from VC, is this good? I know many companies start up with VC and eventually get a sustainable model so they can stand on their feet, the VC's get a nice ROI and everyone walks into the sunset.
However, MLG has been around 10+ years (correct?) and it seems like they still can't generate enough internal revenue (is this the correct term?) to be sustainable. Eventually VC dries up, right? What is so different from the dreaded 'sponsorship model' and the 'VC model'? It seems about the same to a laymen like me.
I think some of the big risks MLG has taken lately like a high priced PPV is perhaps due to itchy VC's wanting to see some type of return or proof that MLG can be profitable?
What kind of longevity does MLG have if all of their funding is coming from VCs? The fact that they 'sold' another 11.3 (want 13) million in VC a good sign? Good because investors still care about MLG and think it's worth while? Or a bad sign, that MLG still can't be profitable on their own and still need to reach out to VCs?
Thanks in advance if any expert can answer my queries.
<3
|
Companies like Yelp have not even turned a profit but investors are hungry for it's IPO.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
