Over the last decade, Super League Enterprises Inc. had placed its focus on video game creation and esports event organization. In the last two years, though, the Santa Monica-based company has pivoted considerably, moving away from its work with esports and toward enabling companies to create and publish digital advertising campaigns for their brands and intellectual property on gaming platforms like Roblox and Minecraft.
While rebranding itself, Super League is taking action to address its declining stock price and pursue new patents for its proprietary cloud-streaming technology.
Super League went public in 2019 amid what Chief Executive Ann Hand called a “frothy” market. Since its founding in 2014, Super League – previously called Super League Gaming Inc. – broadcasted esports events, hosted recreational esports tournaments, and produced such original titles as “Anime Battlegrounds X.”
Hand said that it was focused on supporting smaller esports and specialized in running recreational video game events. This included a massive operation of hosting esports league events at movie theaters through partnerships with such chains as Cinemark Holdings Inc., Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.
But Hand said that Super League’s operations had become too niche, and betting its future on esports was “too narrow.”
As valuations for esports teams skyrocketed in 2019 and 2020, an industry “bubble” was discussed by analysts, and Hand realized it was time to move away from just broadcasting esports tournaments. This led to the development of its new platform, built on a portfolio of business-to-business ad tools and media products, that helps companies create “immersive, branded in-game experiences” based on the brands’ IP. These “experiences” are published as virtual advertising campaigns on Roblox, Minecraft and other media platforms. Roblox is a gaming platform where users program and publish their own new…
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