There were no bells or whistles last week when Entain held an “investors day” but buried in the good financial news was the purchase of Unikrn, one of the leaders in esports betting and an announcement that Entain would set up a separate esports division.
At a time when major gaming and sports betting companies are still scratching their heads over the potential for esports betting, Entain has gone all in. The company said it plans to spend at least ₤50 million—including the Unikrn buy—to set up a separate esports division.
Unikrn was founded in 2014 by Karl Flores and Rahul Sood, and backed by such luminaries as Mark Cuban and Ashton Kutcher. It took bets on games played in League of Legends and Counter Strike, among others. Entain purchased the technology, content and team of Unikrn, including Flores who took over as CEO from Sood last year.
Jette Nygaard-Andersen, Entain’s CEO, commented: “Entain has built a powerful platform combining our industry-leading technology, people and capabilities that is driving significant growth in our existing markets, including the U.S., but also enables us to grow into new and emerging markets and opportunities related to our core areas of expertise.”
Heading up Entain’s esports division will be Justin Dellario, who most recently served as VP of content and esports for Twitch, who Nygaard-Andersen said was “something of a rock star” in the sport.
“One exciting opportunity is the growing esports skill-based wagering market. We are building the first scalable platform to address this market and I am delighted that Justin Dellario is joining us to lead our growth in this new area.”
Entain is the joint venture partner with MGM Resorts for BetMGM. Unikrn partners with MGM Resorts in 2017 to bring live esports events to MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Unikrn attempted to break into the cryptocurrency market early on but that effort nearly ended in disaster as it was forced to disable its UnikoinGold (UKG) cryptocurrency and pay a $6 million fine to settle and SEC complaint. The company had raised $31 million to launch the initial coin offering, in addition to the $10 million it raised to launch the company in 2014.
