Last year, the esports company Nerd Street was teetering on the brink of becoming yet another casualty of esports winter. Today, the company’s emerged, battle-worn but standing, with a revamped business model and a fresh funding round — albeit at its lowest valuation since its first seed funding round in 2018.
Navigating controversy
Founded in 2016, Nerd Street is an esports infrastructure business. At the time of its most recent funding round in 2021, which valued the company at $65 million, the company’s focus was building and operating esports arenas, as well as producing live events and operating competitive gaming leagues for publishers such as Riot Games and its titles “Valorant” and “Wild Rift.”
Last year, Nerd Street found itself at the center of a scandal when reports surfaced that the company had failed to pay the participants of some of its “Valorant” esports events — a situation that CEO John Fazio blamed on several of Nerd Street’s commercial deals falling through, including a partnership with the doomed cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
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