MLG co-founders Mike Sepso and Sundance DiGiovanni have launched esports infrastructure platform Vindex.
The company, which was also co-founded by Bryan Binder and Jason Garmise, has launched with $60 million (£46.6 million) in funding following its Series A round.
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Vindex’s board members include the likes of Steve Bornstein, former CEO of ESPN, and Joel Greenblatt, Founder of Gotham Asset Management. The platform is said to provide “technology and services that power the richest experiences in esports” by helping “publishers, esports leagues and teams,” according to a release.
DiGiovanni told Esports Insider: “I’m incredibly excited to bring together so many talented people under the Vindex banner. With Esports Engine and NGE, we have an opportunity to play an instrumental role in crafting the world’s largest esports initiatives and today’s announcement is just the beginning.”
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Vindex has unveiled the acquisition of Next Generation Esports and launch of Esports Engine alongside its own announcement. The former is a production company and the latter is a turnkey esports operations company founded by Adam Apicella.
As per its official website, Esports Engine is the “same team that took MLG from inception in 2002 to acquisition in 2016, leading the industry in innovation and execution.” It will work with publishers, broadcasters, leagues, and teams by providing turnkey technology and services.
We're excited to announce that @EsportsEng and @MrAdamAp will be overseeing our events. We're excited to bring the best @CODLeague games to NYC. Sign up to be the first to know when tickets go on salehttps://t.co/ef7Y3ZlOFz pic.twitter.com/s5agURQsq4
— Cloud9 Call of Duty (@C9COD_) October 30, 2019
Esports Engine has already struck a deal with New York Subliners, the newly-announced Call of Duty League franchise owned by Andbox. It will oversee the team’s home series events for the inaugural season, which commences on January 24th.
Esports Insider says: This is one of the more exciting announcements we’ve seen in esports for quite some time, purely because of the legacy these guys built with MLG. $60M in funding for a Series A in esports is no joke and already having NGE and Esports Engine under its belt makes Vindex a potential powerhouse in the future.