Esports and money are a well-practiced combination of course. The popular hobby went from a niche phenomenon to becoming a global sensation with fans in every country in the world. With that came investments, grants, even government supports and more. Naturally, with the explosion in popularity, the amounts of money involved rocketed to the millions as well, and soon esports were a billion-dollar economy behemoth. Well, all things considered, it’s actually high time for these huge investments and big names to also make the jump to Wall Street.
This has finally happened now – Super League, an organisation founded in 2014 is now trading at Wall Street. Unlike most esports companies, SL made the decision to focus on regular players and their interests rather than prospective pro players. The company’s CEO Ann Hand has referred to her company as the ‘Little League for esports’.
Not so little, of course – the company reported sales exceeding $1 million last year. Among their activities are in-person amateur competitions, streams on Twitch and YouTube and more. Their first day at Wall Street was Tuesday, and truth be told, it didn’t go very well. As soon as trading started, the shares tumbled down an unpleasant 24%, and stayed around the $8.50 mark.
Ann Hand remains optimistic about the future of her company though – it makes most of its profit from sponsorships, subscription sales and various partnerships. Among said partners are companies like Topgolf, Logitech, Red Bull, Best Buy – SL uses their locations for their events. With partners like that, it’s no surprise the company went public despite recent red digits in their books – even the million of sales isn’t enough to cover a $20 million deficit.
© Super League Gaming
More and more partnerships with name-brand companies like Viacom and Nickelodeon show a pretty lively future for Super League though, and Hand says the company has explicit plans to expand and scale up in the near future since they are in the right position for it. In the same vein, she said that the world of amateur esports is relatively green, leaving SL plenty of space to move into and to claim that particular market segment for themselves.
Their timing with going public wasn’t accidental either – not only were they keen to nab the historic title of being the first esports company in order to do so, but they are only just really unleashing their platform, leaving them in a position where they can show everyone what they’ve got so to speak!
At the moment, they host tournaments for popular games like Fortnite and League of Legends as well as a few other games as well – bringing dedicated amateur players together is a pretty interesting goal that bridges the gap between entirely casual players and those who have genuine aspirations to go pro or to compete at the highest levels, something not everyone can or even wants to do!
