Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 4:42 PM on Monday, February 25th, 2019
SPONSOR: Enthusiast Gaming Holdings Inc.
(TSX-V: EGLX) Uniting gaming communities with 80 owned and affiliated
websites, currently reaching over 75 million monthly visitors. The
company partial 2018 reported revenue of $7.4 million representing a
625% increase over the same period in 2017.
EGLX: TSX-V ———————————-
In Focus: Women and eSports
When modern eSports were introduced more than a decade ago, only a small number of people have realized that this specific form of competition and entertainment can break the boundaries of nationality, religion, and gender.
eSports is a trending activity which is practiced by thousands of people.
Also, millions of others are fans of eSports and they can’t wait to watch the most popular tournaments and single matches. With this specific form of competition, participants can improve team skills, learn more about leadership and have fun.
In the past, many people viewed this activity as an exclusive
all-male activity. But, the situation is not the same today when women
have shown that they can be inspiring players and show that men and
women are equal.
Young ladies are more visible in eSports today. While it’s true that only a small number of eSports pro players are female, their number is growing every year. What’s interesting is that we can see two trends related to eSports and women.
First of all, there are cases when women are part of eSports teams
where most of the players are men. We have seen many women that were
participating in teams like this which were part of popular tournaments.
On the other hand, there are efforts to create special all-female
leagues, competitions, and tournaments. This works similarly to women in
regular sports. For instance, there’s NBA and there’s WNBA.
Almost every sport has a female version and it looks like eSports is
developing in this way too. As expected, the prize pools on these
tournaments are significantly lower, but things are expected to change
in the near future.
Source: Esports.net
Many things suggest that eSports fans would like to see more females
involved in this activity. For example, more people want to place bets
on female eSports professionals. They are using websites like Esportsbettingexperts.co.uk
to find the best eSports betting websites where they can place bets
related to female players. There’s something about multi-gender teams
that make betting more interesting and fun. The same goes for the
competition.
Furthermore, we should also mention that there are many TV channels and online streaming
channels that are specialized in female players. They are following
their performance which helps these players build stronger fan bases. Of
course, many of these players have their own channels where they have
thousands of followers.
What’s good to know is that female players are not focused on just
one eSport. You can find female players in almost every eSport. For
instance, Sasha Hostyn which is one of the most successful women in this area is playing StarCraft II. She has earned more than $200K in the last five years and she has an army of followers on Twitch (over 50,000). Also, Ricki Ortiz
is another popular female eSports player who is focused on fighting
games. Ricki has participated in more than 60 national and international
tournaments.
Source: Business Insider
Even though most of the female players come from North America, there
are successful women in the field of eSports from other countries too. Julia Kiran is a Swedish player who is playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
and she’s good at it. She also has one of the most visited Twitch
channels. China has a great female representative too and that’s Wang
Xinyu aka BaiZe. She is playing many different games, but she is
primarily focused on Hearthstone.
As you can see women are deeply involved in eSports activities and we can expect this trend to continue in the future.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 12:07 PM on Monday, January 7th, 2019
Transformative acquisition to add approximately 35% to Enthusiast’s rapidly growing revenue base
Company to acquire 100% of the assets of The Sims Resource from Generatorhallen AB and IBIBI HB on an arm’s length basis for US$18 million in cash and US$2 million in stock for an aggregate purchase price of US$20 million
TSR generated C$7 million in revenue and C$5.25 million in Adjusted EBITDA2 Â and approximately C$4.5 million in net income
world’s largest female video gaming content and community destination online.
Sims™ franchise has sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide and is widely considered one of the best-selling video games series of all time.
TORONTO, Jan. 07, 2019 — Enthusiast Gaming Holdings Inc. (“Enthusiast†or the “Companyâ€) (TSXV: EGLX), is pleased to announce that it has, through a wholly-owned subsidiary, signed a definitive agreement on January 3, 2019 (the “Agreement“) for the Company to acquire 100% of the assets of The Sims Resource (“TSRâ€) from Generatorhallen AB and IBIBI HB (the “Vendorsâ€) on an arm’s length basis for US$18 million in cash and US$2 million in stock for an aggregate purchase price of US$20 million (the “Purchase Price“).  Thirty percent (30%) of the Purchase Price is payable on closing and the balance payable by the first anniversary date of closing, subject to certain customary adjustments (the “Transaction“). Completion of the Transaction is subject to satisfaction of a number of customary conditions, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange and is expected to close prior to February 15, 2019.
THE SIMS RESOURCE
Established in 1999, TSR (www.thesimsresource.com)
has grown to become the world’s largest female video gaming content and
community destination online.1 The website offers custom content built
around the popular Sims™ video game franchise, which can be downloaded
by users to alter and/or expand gameplay. Published by Electronic Arts,
The Sims™ franchise has sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide and is
widely considered one of the best-selling video games series of all
time.
“The Sims Resource is one of the largest video game communities,
ranking in the top 5 independent sites in total views in the US, Canada
and the UK. It currently generates more than 10% of the total views of
Twitch.com, the largest video game website, which was acquired by Amazon
in 2014 for approximately US$1 billion,” said Menashe Kestenbaum, CEO of Enthusiast Gaming (Source: Comscore Media Metrix Multi-Platform/®, Games – Gaming Information, Total Views, November 2018, U.S., Canada, U.K.). “Further, with the rapidly growing female video game segment, TSR provides us with immediate reach into this valuable audience.â€
TSR is the largest female video gaming content site in the world
generating in excess of 2.5 billion page views per year (Google
Analytics);
Comscore’s Gaming Information category currently ranks TSR in the top 5 independent video game websites;
The site ranks #7 on Quantcast’s Top 25 websites with the highest
concentration of female audience in the United States, closely behind
Oprah.com and Bravotv.com (Quantcast, Top 25 websites with the most
female audience, 2017);
In 2018 TSR generated C$7 million in revenue and C$5.25 million in
Adjusted EBITDA2 and approximately C$4.5 million in net income
(CohnReznick LLP unaudited “Quality of Earnings†report prepared for
Enthusiast); and
Approximately 60% of revenue is derived from advertising with 40% received from monthly recurring subscribers.
“We see three key growth opportunities associated with this acquisition,†Kestenbaum continued. “Initially
we intend to drive significant organic growth in advertising revenue
via direct sales, an area of strategic importance to Enthusiast in
recent months. Further, we now have an opportunity to monetize with
advertisers seeking a large female video game audience. Finally, TSR’s
subscription model has the potential to add considerable revenue across
our entire portfolio.â€
TRANSACTION TERMS
As consideration for the acquired assets, Enthusiast will pay, at
closing, an initial amount of US$4 million in cash and US$2 million in
common shares in the capital of the Company valued at C$1.00 per share;
The Company will pay a deferred payment (the “Deferred Paymentâ€) of US$14 million on or before the first anniversary of closing;
Enthusiast will enter into a transition services agreement, pursuant
to which the Vendors will manage, operate and administer the acquired
assets and in particular the relationships with the TSR community for a
period of up to one year;
Until the Deferred Payment is made, the Company has agreed on a
profit-sharing split of 70% in favour of the Vendors, which decreases
proportionally if the Company elects to prepay a portion of the Deferred
Payment; and
Pursuant to the Transaction, the Company will acquire all of the
assets related to TSR, including, but not limited to, customer and
supplier lists, trade names, business goodwill, intellectual property,
software, the domain name, website content, social media accounts and
the Company will not assume any liabilities or obligations of the
Vendors outside of those normally assumed in relation to employment and
certain other contractual obligations.
The acquisition of TSR is the largest acquisition to date for
Enthusiast and follows the successful completion of seven strategic
acquisitions in 2018. The Company anticipates that it will need to
secure financing in order to meet the Deferred Payment. The Company
expects to continue to grow through a combination of organic growth and
acquisition utilizing its balance sheet as well as being opportunistic
with respect to additional equity and/or debt financing to execute on
its defined growth strategy.
About Enthusiast
Founded in 2014, Enthusiast is the fastest-growing online community
of video gamers. Through the Company’s unique acquisition strategy, it
has a platform of over 80 owned and affiliated websites and currently
reaches over 75 million monthly visitors with its unique and curated
content. Enthusiast also owns and operates Canada’s largest gaming expo,
Enthusiast Gaming Live Expo, EGLX, (www.eglx.ca). Over 30,000 people attended EGLX in October 2018. For more information on the Company, visit www.enthusiastgaming.com.
This news release contains certain statements that may constitute
forward-looking information under applicable securities laws. All
statements, other than those of historical fact, which address
activities, events, outcomes, results, developments, performance or
achievements that Enthusiast anticipates or expects may or will occur in
the future (in whole or in part) should be considered forward-looking
information. Such information may involve, but is not limited to,
comments with respect to strategies, expectations, planned operations
and future actions of the Company. Often, but not always,
forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such
as “plans”, “expects”, “is expected”, “budget”, “scheduled”,
“estimates”, “forecasts”, “intends”, “anticipates”, or “believes” or
variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or
statements formed in the future tense or indicating that certain
actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might” or “will”
(or other variations of the forgoing) be taken, occur, be achieved, or
come to pass. Forward-looking information is based on currently
available competitive, financial and economic data and operating plans,
strategies or beliefs as of the date of this news release, but involve
known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors
that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of
Enthusiast to be materially different from any future results,
performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking
information. Such factors may be based on information currently
available to Enthusiast, including information obtained from third-party
industry analysts and other third-party sources, and are based on
management’s current expectations or beliefs regarding future growth,
results of operations, future capital (including the amount, nature and
sources of funding thereof) and expenditures. Any and all
forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly
qualified by this cautionary statement. Trading in the securities of
the Company should be considered highly speculative.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services
Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture
Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this
release.
The securities of the Corporation have not been and will not be
registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended
and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration
or an applicable exemption from the registration requirement. This press
release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an
offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any
jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be
unlawful.
____________________ 1 See Comscore Media Metrix Multi-Platform and Quantcast report referenced below.
2 Adjusted EBITDA as used by the Company means earnings before
interest and financing costs (net of interest income), income taxes,
depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation, restructuring
and other non-recurring costs, and non-controlling interests. Adjusted
EBITDA is a non-IFRS measure. Enthusiast believes this non-IFRS
financial measure provides useful information to both management and
investors in measuring financial performance, the ability to fund future
working capital needs, to service outstanding debt, and to fund future
capital expenditures. This measure does not have a standard meaning
prescribed by IFRS and therefore may not be comparable to similarly
titled measurers presented by other publicly traded companies and should
not be construed as an alternative to other financial measures
determined in accordance with IFRS.
