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On April 26th, ESPN2 aired a two hour block of an online gaming tournament. The game was Heroes of the Storm and the event was met with a well-publicized mixture of anger and intrigue as a majority of viewers had never seen live online gaming.
One company is hoping to capitalize on this eSports intrigue and take viewer’s interest to the next level.
Venice-based AlphaDraft has now brought the fantasy sports craze to eSports by allowing their users to place bets on the statistical performance of players in video game tournaments.
The five-month-old company announced today it raised $5 million in an investment round led by Metamorphic Ventures with participation from several others including Upfront Ventures, IDG Ventures, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, and former NBA Commissioner David Stern. The company works out of Amplify LA’s offices, who also contributed to the funds.
AlphaDrafts reported it has seen one million entries since its launch in January with one player earning a total of $30,488 in prize money. They plan on reaching one million users by the end of 2015.
It’s becoming hard to be skeptical about the valuation of online gaming after its recent spike in popularity. Major tournaments sell out entire arenas and garner tens of millions of views online, while the athletes can make more than $300,000 a year in prize money alone.
But perhaps the biggest draw for investors is the sport’s global scalability. Unlike traditional sports in which fan bases are primarily local, online gamers can receive global attention, drawing in a global profit.
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