eSports Crowdfunding Platform Matcherino Raises $1.5M

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ESPORTS CROWDFUNDING PLATFORM MATCHERINO RAISES $1.5M

Matcherino Raises $1.5M (Photo: Matcherino)

Matcherino Raises $1.5M (Photo: Matcherino)

TNL Take: California has been the center of innovation in both technology, Silicon Valley, and Gaming/eSports with over half the US industry based in that state.

Recently Seattle has seen it's own emergence of eSports startups: Unikrn - which is doing the first eSports ICO, Hubtag, Innervate and Beam, which was acquired by little local company Microsoft.

TNL eSports Startups 011: Matcherino Raises $1.5M (Graphic: The Next Level)

TNL eSports Startups 011: Matcherino Raises $1.5M (Graphic: The Next Level)

Last week another Seattle based eSports startup Matcherino raised $1.5M from previous investors Madrona Venture Group, Vulcun Capital and other angels.

Want another NBA eSports connection? Vulcun Capital is the investment arm of Vulcun Inc., run by ex-Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the owner of the Portland Trailblazers.

Matcherino is very simple way to crowdfund a prize pool between players, teams or events for a multitude of games.

List of Matcherino Supported Games (Photo: Matcherino)

List of Matcherino Supported Games (Photo: Matcherino)

Matcherino users simply login via Twitch, use PayPal as the transaction platform and the money goes directly to the prize pool.

Matcherino's Crowdfunding Platform (Photo: Matcherino)

Matcherino's Crowdfunding Platform (Photo: Matcherino)

Matcherino Crowdfunded Events (Photo: Matcherino)

Matcherino Crowdfunded Events (Photo: Matcherino)

Matcherino provides 2 additional benefits:

  • Users who donate accrue points towards rewards redeemable for goods which are mostly T-shirts currently
  • As Matcherino CEO Grant Farwell said: "Before us, the prize pools were being completely mismanaged by event organizers, who are often young due to the nature of the industry and don’t handle money well" [Note: That was not said by me. Don't @ me]

Matcherino also offers Sponsored rewards like Soylent, who also happen to invest in eSports.

Matcherino Sponsored Soylent Reward (Photo: Matcherino)

Matcherino Sponsored Soylent Reward (Photo: Matcherino)

By essentially just providing a connection layer and taking a % of each transaction and some sponsorship revenue, Matcherino could work.

 

However the biggest challenge is lack of defensibility: Twitch, YouTube, or Facebook could easily replicate this.

 

Let's see which platform copies this the quickest if the monetization opportunity is there.