(MENAFN- Baystreet.ca) With a $30 million prize pool on the line…
And over 2 million people tuning in…
One event has piqued the interest of a generation.
And with the industry as a whole slated to pull in $3 billion in just a few short years…
Investors can't ignore the esports boom any longer.
Teams are selling for tens of millions of dollars…and the stars of this sports niche are earning a cool million every month. That's more than the top MLB players.
This is the new reality of sports, and it's fueled by young, internet savvy enthusiasts who spend a collective 6.6 billion hours watching their favorite players. And this overlooked industry is only getting bigger.
In fact, according to Goldman Sachs, it's set to grow 240% percent by 2022.
And one little-known company with a market cap of only $10 million is quickly becoming the talk of the town thanks to its strategic acquisitions and partnerships with some of the biggest names in the space.
The little-known company is Millennial Esports ( TSXV:GAME ,OTCMKTS:MLLLF ), and it's positioning itself to take on every bit of this playing field, including the upside--and the upside to the upside.
5 Reasons to keep a close eye on Millennial Esports right now:
#1 Sports, Redefined and Ready To Hit $3 Billion
By next year, tech consulting firm Activate forecasts that 70 million people will watch a single esports final.
And by 2021, esports is set to have 84 million viewers, beating out every single U.S. sport except the NFL.
This is the fastest rise of any industry to date.
One out of every three 18-25-year-old spends more than an hour a day playing video games. Last year, 250 million played Fortnite alone.
Already in Q4 2018, it boasted 400 million viewers, with total e-sports revenues reaching $870 million. As 2019 comes to a close, e-sports is set to come in with $1.1 billion in revenue.
By 2022, the global esports market is expected to triple, hitting the $3-billion mark, according toGoldman Sachs . A 240% rise in just 3 years.
It's anything but a passing fad.
It's global in scale, and major universities are even offering esports scholarships.
What's pushing all this profitability?
It's simple: Esports viewers want to be able to watch their favorite teams, players and tournaments on any screen, at any time.
That's exactly where Millennial Esports ( TSXV:GAME ,OTCMKTS:MLLLF ) comes into play.
There are multiple billion-dollar prize pools, and Millennial is jumping into all of them:
- Branding
-
Media rights
- Advertising
- Sponsorship
-
Big Data
-
Game development
#2 The Formula (One) for Success
When it comes to game developing and the holy grail of branding, Millennial ( TSXV:GAME ,OTCMKTS:MLLLF ) is on full throttle.
The news flow on Millennial's game development is moving faster than an F1 race, and the brands behind the name are top of the line.
The company has acquired Eden, a video racing game developer linked to the Formula One brand. Eden justrolled out Gear Club Unlimited 2 in 2018 , and more games are in the pipeline.
It also just securedexclusive partnerships with Porsche and Nintendo.
That makes Millennial the luxury race car of the esports arena.
How big is this arena, exactly? The biggest one in racing. The F1 isn't just a race, it's an obsession. Its 12 teams are worth over $4 billion and each race is watched by over 100 million viewers.
And now, Millennial will be rolling out these big-name brands for its major esports event,World's Fastest Gamer , which offers the biggest prize in esports racing history. It pits big-name racers against the best of the gaming world for a killer cash prize of $1 million for the winner.
Nearly57 million peopleare expected to view this year's Season 2 event, which could bring in $15 million in media value alone, with Aston Martin playing a key role and former F1 and Indy 500 racers behind the e-wheel.
That includes former F1 Ferrari driver Rubens Barichello and 2x Indy champ Juan Pablo Montoya.
Once the flags are waved on this race, it will be full speed ahead for Millennial's exposure.
By the time these drivers hit the $1-million finish line, Millennial hopes to have established itself as the world's biggest esports racing brand.
But it will also have delivered a much bigger message at the finish line …
Millennial ( TSXV:GAME ,OTCMKTS:MLLLF ) could be on track to become the biggest provider of esports data analytics for big tech.
#3 Big Data, Even Bigger Upside
The nearly $200-billion Big Data industry is the massively lucrative difference between esports and an esports empire.
Big Data is the kingmaker for every segment of industry.
It's great to develop one of the hottest new games, but the real upside is when you can harness all the data you collect from millions of players and turn it into premium analytics that everyone wants.
That's exactly what Millennial ( TSXV:GAME ,OTCMKTS:MLLLF ) is doing through a well-timed acquisition ofStream Hatchet , a data-collection and processing service, which could be described as the "Nielsen of Gaming".
Stream Hatchet collects analytics on esports, specifically, and then helps its clients identify influences and trends in the industry.
This is where the esports industry gets intelligent.
The way to make money in this industry is to know what gamers are doing, how many hours they're doing it for, what's influencing them and how to harness that data. Now gathering this data is under the Millennial umbrella.
And it isn't only hitching a ride on the next generation of revenue stream …
Companies are actually buying their own data back from Millennial. So that's double the upside.
Big data gets even bigger for Millennial, too. It has partnerships with everyone from the biggest streaming companies, social media sites and game platforms on the collection end, and the world's biggest developers, publishers and studios on the development end.
It's cornering the market on esports and gaming data, which means it's essentially holding a secret key to industry revenue. That means it's also got a secret code book for monetizing data through licensing and reporting fees.
#4 The Godfather of Esports
It helps when you have the " Godfather " of racing esports at the helm.
Millennial's CEO is exactly that: Darren Cox masterminded the World's Fastest Gamer event, and he's also the former Global Motorsport Director for Nissan, managing global sales and marketing for the brand.
What Millennial ( TSXV:GAME ,OTCMKTS:MLLLF ) is doing straddles a series of multi-billion-dollar worlds, from racing and game development to branding, advertising and big data.
Cox has done it all.
He's landed F1 Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello for Millennial, along with Indy 500 champion Juan Pablo Montoya.
He's an expert in branding.
He's even managed to turn gamers into professional racers at the GT Academy.
He is THE name in esports, from whatever angle you examine it.
He understands that this isn't just about developing games, and he's in the process of building an esports empire—and nothing less.
Cox is ready to tap into every single revenue stream connected to esports, and his string of acquisitions only adds fuel to the fire.
#5 The Value in Undervaluation
We're talking about a $10-million market cap company positioning itself to try to corner the market in racing game development, branding and big data analytics in an industry some predict will explode to $3 billion by 2022.
It's also part of a bigger gaming industry that could be worth $300 billion by 2025. The wider industry will be very interested in the big data code book held by Millennial, too.
It's already an industry offering up massive cash prizes in the tens of millions, and Millennial's "World's Fastest Gamer" event could be the next big Fortnite-style ‘World Cup' to captivate global audiences.
It started with two critical acquisitions:
- Eden gaming, with the F1 branding and new racing games in the works
- StreamHatchet, with the keys to e-sports big data
The next big push will come when the flag is waved on the "World's Fastest Gamer" and the F1 obsession hits the digital racetrack around the world later this year.
When it comes to esports, there is no doubt the Millennial Esports ( TSXV:GAME ,OTCMKTS:MLLLF ) is in poll position.
Other companies looking to take advantage of the burgeoning esports market:
BCE Inc. (TSX: BCE) is a Canadian telecom giant. Founded in 1980, the company, formally The Bell Telephone Company of Canada is composed of three primary subsidiaries. Bell Wireless, Bell Wireline and Bell Media, however throughout its push into the position of one of Canada's top telco groups, it has bought and sold a number of different firms.
BCE is also at the forefront of Canada's content creation industry. Bell Media's reach is well distributed, and even has a number of branches including Animal Planet, E!, and partnerships and joint ventures with the likes of The Discovery Channel and HBO.
Rogers Communications Inc. (TSX:RCI.B) is the biggest internet and cable provider in Canada with over 10 million subscribers across the country. While it is not necessarily a dominate force in content creation, it has set itself apart from its competitors with its growing customer base and advertising dominance.
Rogers is also a go-to internet provider for a large number of corporations dependent on reliable connections and high quality support.
Shaw Communications Inc. (TSX:SJR.B ) is another major player in the Canadian telecoms sector. It owns a ton of infrastructure throughout Canada and its cloud services and open-source projects look to address some of the biggest issues that its customers might face before the customers even face them.
Despite a couple of dips over the past few years, Shaw has rebounded nicely, proving that it can stay with the times as the industry continues to evolve.
Telus Corporation (TSX:T) is Canada's second largest internet provider, serving over 8 million Canadians from coast to coast. Though it's not producing its own content, it is carving out its own path in the industry thanks to its innovative approach to technology and investments across multiple sectors.
From healthcare to the Internet of Things and cloud technology, Telus is taking a stake in some of the world's most important and fastest growing markets, making it a company worth noting.
Stars Group Inc (TSX:TSGI) is a world leader in the online and mobile gaming industry. With a focus on maintaining high regulatory standards while simultaneously offering a wide range of products across multiple platforms, Stars has solidified its place among the gaming hierarchy.
In December, Stars Group secured a major partnership with the National Basketball Association in order to use data and league marks across their digital sports betting offerings.
Scott Kaufman-Ross, Head of Fantasy & Gaming, NBA explained, "This dynamic partnership will be another way to create authentic fan engagement with league logos and official NBA betting data, while leveraging Stars' global expertise to further optimize the fan experience."
By. Philip Drew
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