{"id":343502,"date":"2017-06-13T18:33:02","date_gmt":"2017-06-13T10:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1502351"},"modified":"2017-06-13T18:33:02","modified_gmt":"2017-06-13T10:33:02","slug":"in-la-some-investors-wish-they-all-could-live-in-an-esports-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/in-la-some-investors-wish-they-all-could-live-in-an-esports-world\/","title":{"rendered":"In LA, some investors wish they all could live in an esports world"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 78\u00b0 and sunny in Venice.\u00a0 The southwest swell is drawing surfers and sun-worshippers to the beach. But inside a nearby house, the residents couldn\u2019t care less.<\/span><\/p>\n

T<\/span>hey crowd around \u00a0high-end PC rigs, yelling into headsets.Their hands are blurs over keyboards, mice dart across tabletops.\u00a0 The air is hot and and a cacophony fills the halls. Welcome to esports and the house of team Fnatic<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Fnatic team plays Overwatch, Blizzard\u2019s newest and fastest growing esports title. Fans are drawn by the opportunity to watch pros play at levels they can only dream about, like weekend golfers following Master\u2019s pros across the fairways. Esports is well on its way to becoming big business and like all new businesses, entrepreneurs are founding companies to ride this wave of growth. Los Angeles is the Western epicenter of esports and fast becoming the hub for esports startups.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles has always attracted \u00a0ambitious entrepreneurs who have built fortunes creating content \u2014 movies, music, television. In the \u201890s, entrepreneurs crossed computers with Hollywood and created today\u2019s video game giants including Activision and Blizzard.<\/p>\n

As those companies grew, related segments including mobile games, ad tech, analytics, multi-channel networks, social and subscription commerce evolved.\u00a0 All this activity positioned Los Angeles to become the global capital of the next big sector \u2014 esports, which lives at the intersections of entertainment, games, and sports. Los Angeles is now the undisputed esports startup headquarters in America.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

First, it is home to Riot Games<\/a>, Blizzard<\/a> and Activision<\/a>.\u00a0 These three video game companies collectively publish many of the largest esports titles including League of Legends, Hearthstone, Overwatch, and Starcraft II. To support the activities of these companies, the major esports tournament organizers ESL<\/a>, FACEIT<\/a> and Major League Gaming<\/a> have offices here.<\/p>\n

Also drawn to this burgeoning ecosystem are the North American esports teams, many of which have established team houses where their professional teams live and train \u2014 mostly train.\u00a0 Counter Logic Gaming, Team SoloMid, Immortals and Team Liquid, all major esports teams, now have bases here.<\/p>\n

Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and MLB Advanced Media dominate distribution and, while none yet run their esports operations from Los Angeles, both Facebook and YouTube have significant presences.<\/p>\n

Potential competitors for esports distribution rights include Snapchat, Netflix, Amazon Video and Hulu, all LA-based or hosting major programming operations in the city.<\/p>\n

The last requirement for a robust startup ecosystem is capital.\u00a0 Over the last few years, Los Angeles has seen tremendous growth in early-stage investors in the market.\u00a0 Veteran seed investors like Upfront Ventures<\/a>, Greycroft Partners<\/a> and Idealab<\/a> have been joined by new players like BITKRAFT Esports Ventures<\/a>, March Capital<\/a>, Amplify<\/a>, Crosscut Ventures<\/a>, Embark Ventures, Science Inc., Karlin Ventures, Mucker Capital, Arena Ventures, LOWERCASE Capital, Luma Launch and others.<\/p>\n

Investments include companies like Scopely<\/a> (mobile games), Zefr<\/a> (video technology), Loot Crate<\/a> (subscription commerce), Whipclip<\/a> (video sharing), Fullscreen<\/a> (video content), and Victorius<\/a> (fan engagement).\u00a0 There is a common thread that ties Los Angeles startups together \u2014 content. More often than not, the product that these companies are delivering is tied to content creation, consumption or monetization.\u00a0 With their support, the final piece of the esports start-up ecosystem is complete.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Esports as a category is a natural evolution of this investing activity. While video games have existed for several decades, it is only in the last ten years that businesses have evolved around the idea that an audience existed that would want to watch them.<\/p>\n

Twitch.tv, the platform that is the granddaddy of video game streaming, did not even spin out of Justin.tv until 2011.\u00a0 And business models around esports are also fast-evolving with entrepreneurs focused on new ways to monetize sponsorships, digital goods, influencer marketing, and distribution. And so, we are seeing a community of esports startups beginning to coalesce in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Investors like my own firm, BITKRAFT, and others like Amplify, Upfront, March Capital and Crosscut are intent on providing capital to them. Drawn to, and nurtured by, Los Angeles\u2019 catalyzing combination of entrepreneurs, teams, publishers, platforms, organizers, and capital these esports companies are just the beginning of many more to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" Los Angeles is now the undisputed esports startup headquarters in America. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-343502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}