Big moves in L.A.'s gaming industry Thursday, as mobile gaming platform Artie closes its seed round of funding and gaming/ lifestyle organization FaZe Clan lands a new CFO. Sign up for our newsletter and follow dot.LA on Twitter for more updates.
Today:
- Artie Closes Seed Round at $10 Million
- FaZe Clan Brings on a New CFO
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Artie Closes Seed Round at $10 Million
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vbWVkaWEucmJsLm1zL2ltYWdlP3U9JTJGY29udGVudCUyRjVlZDE1ZDQyODVjNzE3NGJiNDU4NmQ4MyUyRjE1OTI0MjAwMTQxOTQtNktLT1BRMjRSWExVNUoxM002S0klMkZhcnRpZWxvZ29fYmxhY2sucG5nJTNGZm9ybWF0JTNEMTUwMHclMjZjb250ZW50LXR5cGUlM0RpbWFnZSUyRnBuZyZobz1odHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRmltYWdlcy5zcXVhcmVzcGFjZS1jZG4uY29tJnM9MzE4Jmg9MDUzZTlhZWRkNWM2NDhjMzA4OGE4OTUzNGNkMWZhZmQzNmY1OTBkYzZjZGRlY2ViYmQ5MjFjMmZiMWY4MTZhZCZzaXplPTk4MHgmYz0zNTUzMTAyMzAwIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NTE5ODQxOH0.9rhWJ2lsZW1ROB7H5ywiclYOxACKXELeuiocn4oitnQ/img.jpg" id="7994e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ee4179c6afc05780213b3b8c58c72868" alt="Artie" /><p><a href="https://www.artie.com" target="_blank">Artie</a>, the L.A.-based startup aiming to change how mobile games are accessed and distributed, has completed <a href="https://dot.la/artie-2647773915.html" target="_self">the seed round that it reopened in September</a>, closing at $10 million. Investors include mobile-games giant Zynga founder Mark Pincus, NBA star Kevin Durant, Scooter Braun's Raised In Space investment firm and the Winklevoss twins.</p><p>Mobile games are the biggest segment of a growing gaming market, and Artie's tech aims to change how players and creators connect through those games. The goal is to reduce friction by allowing gamers to open games directly from online platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Facebook rather than force them to log in through the Apple or Google app stores. Circumventing the app stores also means game creators and developers would not have to pay the 30% fees those platforms charge.</p><p>Artie plans to release its first round of games later this year, and eventually to allow other developers to use its technology as a distribution platform. Its self-published games will be free to play; Artie will make money through in-game purchases. Once it opens to other developers via a software development kit, it will charge a fee, which chief executive Ryan Horrigan said will likely be 12%.</p>Amit Baraj Takes Over as FaZe Clan CFO
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://dot.la/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY2MjMyNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MzU5NjgzNH0.r-bMQdsKcmyBMeDedE-9NhQRpC41BGbrBouFDxzpelk/image.jpg?width=2000&coordinates=0%2C139%2C0%2C1619&height=1500" id="ad393" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3be7eff120cab45bee19bd9ddf5c957a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Amit Baraj, FaZe Clan CFO" data-width="2000" data-height="1500" />Amit Baraj is FaZe Clan's new chief financial officer.
<p><a href="https://dot.la/faze-clan-2646120733.html" target="_self">FaZe Clan, the L.A.-based gaming brand that spans esports, content and lifestyle apparel</a>, announced Thursday that it has a new chief financial officer.</p><p>Amit Baraj, most recently chief executive officer at 3-on-3 basketball league BIG3, will be responsible for overseeing FaZe Clan's finance, strategy and corporate development. Baraj was formerly an investment banker at Centerview Partners, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Bear, Stearns & Co.</p><p>"FaZe Clan has evolved from an esports organization to a true global media and lifestyle brand with tremendous potential. I'm looking forward to partnering with (CEO) Lee (Trink) and the team to execute on the vision and grow the business," Baraj said in a statement.</p><p>FaZe Clan was valued around $250 million as of its $40 million Series A round last April, led by music mogul Jimmy Iovine, Trink previously told dot.LA. </p>From Your Site Articles
- Artie Reopens its Round and Goes After Gaming's Big Problem - dot ... ›
- FaZe Clan Looks to Dominate Global Entertainment - dot.LA ›
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Respawn: VENN Gaming Network Drops Its MTV Ambitions and Goes for 'Raw Contact' with Creators
Feb 04 2021
VENN launched in August with the goal of becoming the "MTV of the Gaming Generation" but it turns out the gaming generation doesn't appear to want MTV. They want short-form content.
On Thursday, VENN announced a significant shakeup, shifting their content strategy from about 85% long-form shows to 85% short-form, which is cheaper to produce and offers near instant feedback, co-CEO Ariel Horn told dot.LA.
<p>The company made the shift after securing $43 million in investment and a broad network of distribution partners. Those deals include one with telecoms company Nexstar — with its $5.3 billion market cap and nearly 200 TV stations — as well as a syndication deal with Microsoft's MSN platform and placement in the Roku Channel and on Samsung TV. </p><p>It was ready to go full throttle on their MTV-for-Gen-Z pitch, but after doing a round of focus groups and looking at its cost structure, it pivoted to focus on short-form platforms like YouTube and Twitch. The move, Horn said, reflects how gamers consume media. </p><p>As part of the pivot, L.A.-based VENN will be launching three channels on YouTube and collaborating more closely with creators that already have gamer followings.</p><p>"It's a humbling process, actually," said Horn. "You look at the editors that are making the most successful products on YouTube, and they're mostly younger folks that have grown up and lived in this environment. So for us, that's been a process, to look at those creators that are succeeding on those platforms and allowing them to do what they do and see the results." </p><p>For example, VENN will be developing a new interview show with Hector Rodriguez, whom Horn described as the "grandfather of 'Call of Duty'." Rodriguez, who started esports company Optic Gaming in 2006, has nearly 1 million subscribers and over 150 million views on his YouTube channel.</p><p>"I thought we could take long-form and chop it down into short-form platforms," said Horn, a four-time Emmy winner who previously developed esports strategies for Riot Games, Blizzard Entertainment and Justin.tv, which became Twitch. "But what I realized is that each platform needs its own bespoke attention to detail." </p><p>For VENN, that will mean focusing more on things like video titles, thumbnail photos and metadata as it shifts away from studio-quality fare toward less-polished, user-generated content (UGC).</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="575f48fdc92bf686c33ed529e641b3df"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KaN9jVrVf_w?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
</p><p>Rather than shooting long-form content from its Playa Vista studio and cutting it down into short-form bits as initially planned, VENN will now prioritize creating short-form, some of which will be shot in the studio, and then cobbling it together for distribution across its various channels.<br/></p><p>"We learned that we must focus our energy on creating engagement and growth on those short-form platforms where gamers are primarily consuming now," Horn said. "The audience is not necessarily looking for higher production value but more direct, raw contact with the creator."</p><p>Also motivating the new strategic direction are the cheaper cost of creating short-form video and the promise of more immediate user feedback. </p><p>Shooting live, long-form content can be expensive because of the manpower and overhead costs like studio space. The new strategy will allow VENN to make more content for less.</p><p>"With our long-form focus, we were able to produce three days' worth of content (per week)," Horn said. By removing some of the production polish, leveraging UGC and reducing the amount of staff needed per product, VENN will be able to produce five days' worth of content at a cheaper cost. </p><p>Thanks to the data that YouTube and Twitch provide, VENN will also be able to get more real-time feedback on what viewers are responding to than they can get through cable and connected TVs like Roku, Samsung TV and Vizio. </p><p>Horn doesn't think the top line will take a hit. </p><p>"I don't think that very much changes from an advertiser's perspective," he said.</p><p>VENN still has aspirations to become a "lifestyle" brand at the nexus of the increasingly overlapping worlds of gaming, sports, music and fashion. But to get there, it will be narrowing its focus for now. </p><p>"It's a reality of a startup that you have to make some bets where you know there are narrow bands of fandom and where you know how to market to them very specifically," said Horn. "We're willing to take as long as needed to build (the lifestyle brand). We're here for the long run." </p>
From Your Site Articles
- VENN Gaming Network Raises $26M and New Distribution ›
- VENN Launches 24/7 Gaming Coverage - dot.LA ›
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For sports fans, the playoffs are an exciting time. But the end of the regular season can be bittersweet as it marks the end of the typical fantasy sports season.
That loss was Carter Russ' inspiration for Champions Round, a new take on fantasy sports that on Monday announced a $1 million seed round led by San Francisco-based Quest Venture Partners.
The two-year-old, L.A.-based startup launched its first full app last month. Its fantasy leagues aren't tied to leagues' entire seasons; instead, they're chunked, usually into periods of three to four weeks, and sometimes around just a single, multi-day event like the NFL draft.
<p>Since its beta launch in April, Champions Round has been installed 8,000 times and 6,000 users have registered. For a time, it reached the #6 spot in the iOS App Store's top free sports apps. That came with little marketing spend, Russ said, which is one big area to which the new funds will be directed. It may also hire another back-end developer to add to its six-person team mostly based in Los Angeles, Russ said. </p><p>As Russ explored whether to launch a fantasy sports product focused on the playoffs, he said he came across several other problems that he saw as opportunities. For one, he felt that fans' fantasy sports options were limited, and each option had drawbacks. They could participate in a typical league: draft their team, wheel and deal throughout the season, and hope that the real-life players perform well enough to bring home the glory; but, Russ said, the excitement of such a league isn't usually sustained the full season as some players get injured or don't play well, causing fantasy owners to lose interest. </p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTQzNTk5MS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1OTc2MTczNn0.NZTzulGIpVkTrIWumaS8QsGKCbaADpGi_PXH33V_zIc/img.png?width=980" id="f3c59" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3a2b649b71f117793242c0ecc85a4345" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="3526" data-height="3631" />
<p>The second fantasy option open to fans, Russ said, is daily fantasy sports. The format has grown more popular as a wave of sports-betting legalization has swept the country in recent years. But the option is restricted to people over the age of 18 and, Russ found, most people end up losing their money.<br></p><p>That led Russ to want to form what he considers a third option.</p><p>As with typical fantasy leagues, players can join Champions Round leagues with their friends or get assigned to leagues with strangers. For now, the leagues are all free to play, but soon the company will expand to leagues played for money. Winners will take home the pot, and the company will keep a percentage.</p>
<p><span style="background-color: initial;">Another twist Champions Round takes on typical fantasy sports is an extra layer of gamification. By participating in leagues, spending money on swag for their avatars, and gaining points over time, users can qualify, for instance, for exclusive leagues that offer big cash prizes. Players can make in-app purchases to accelerate that process.</span><br/></p><p>Champions Round also has an esports module, designed both for user engagement and to help esports newcomers better understand how gameplay works. </p><p>A long-time gamer himself, Russ said when he first started watching League of Legends, the most popular esport, it quickly became evident that the game's mechanics were difficult to grasp. </p><p>"I was about 15 minutes into the stream and I realized, 'I have no idea what the hell I'm looking at'," he said. "And I am about as low-hanging fruit a viewer as they can possibly find to convert." </p><p>By asking users to predict in-game outcomes, like who will get the next kill, Champions Round aims to educate them on the most important components of the game, Russ said. </p><p>As for the company's longer term goal, Russ and his co-founder Chase Payne, formerly of mobile games company Zynga, hope to incorporate a sports betting platform in the next couple of years. </p><p>"We're building what essentially equates to a social betting platform," he said. </p><p>They'll be facing tough competition. Daily fantasy sports platform DraftKings recently went public, and competitor FanDuel has raised nearly half a billion dollars. But Russ thinks his investors see a place for Champions Round in the frothy marketplace. </p><p>He said they're particularly enamored by his company's low cost of acquiring customers. Russ attributes that to the fact that anyone can play, and that users tend to be a self-reinforcing marketing tool, as they recruit their friends to play alongside them. Eighty percent of users were acquired in this way, Russ said, a sky-high number he hopes will remain lofty as his company moves forward with a new stash of cash. </p>From Your Site Articles
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