{"id":57195,"date":"2020-12-17T15:01:30","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T15:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/?p=57195"},"modified":"2022-03-09T11:40:20","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T11:40:20","slug":"mike-sepso-esports-bubble-vindex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2020\/12\/mike-sepso-esports-bubble-vindex","title":{"rendered":"MLG Co-founder Mike Sepso discusses the \u2018esports bubble\u2019 and Vindex’s success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Sepso<\/strong> \u2014 ESI Class of 2020 Hall of Fame<\/a> inductee Mike Sepso \u2014 is an esports legend. The man that, along with Sundance DiGiovanni<\/strong>, founded Major League Gaming (MLG)<\/strong> is currently the CEO of Vindex<\/strong> \u2014 a company he also co-founded, again with DiGiovanni.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mike
Credit: Vindex. Pictured: company CEO Mike Sepso<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

RELATED:<\/strong>\u00a0Vindex to Join World Economic Forum\u2019s Global Innovators Community<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Vindex is a provider of technology and infrastructure to esports companies. Through its Esports Engine<\/strong> and Next Generation Esports<\/strong> arms, the company facilitates some of the world\u2019s biggest esports events, providing services from programme design and management to event production and broadcasting. News broke in July that Sepso and co. had acquired GAME\u2019s Belong Gaming Arena<\/strong> division while pledging to invest $300m (\u00a3222.02m) in the project. Vindex plans to roll out over 500 esports venues in the US and a further 1000 in other countries \u2014 mainly in Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n

The middle of 2020 may not seem the best time to funnel $300m into the global roll-out of gaming arenas. Vindex is different, though. \u201cOur infrastructure and technology enabled us to move to a remote broadcasting model,\u201d Sepso told Esports Insider. \u201cSo we\u2019ve been pretty lucky [during the pandemic] compared to some companies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The year wasn\u2019t without its disruptions, however, and although the arena investment was committed, progress has been slow. \u201cWe had a few live events planned in February, and they obviously got put on hold. There was a major reset then\u2026 the pandemic slowed the progress of Belong venues in the US, which is a shame.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Vindex
Credit: Vindex. Picture taken behind the scenes of Call of Duty event ‘CODE Bowl 2020’, which Vindex’s production vertical Esports Engine produced. Photo taken at Esports Engine’s office in Columbus, Ohio<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe break has given us time to build up our management team, which is a small positive. The situation has knocked progress back two or three quarters, but all things considered, things look better now than we might have thought a few months ago.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Last month, Vindex announced it was the first gaming company to join the World Economic Forum\u2019s (WEF) Global Innovators Community. The initiative, according to the WEF, gives global leaders in innovation a platform to ‘engage with public- and private-sector leaders’, and to ‘contribute new solutions to overcome the current crisis and build future resiliency’.<\/span><\/p>\n

[primis_video widget=”5183″]<\/span><\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong>\u00a0Vindex reportedly set to acquire GAME\u2019s Belong<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The Community will run strategy meetings, business roundtables, and global summits involving its members as well as key heads of state. But why was Vindex selected?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019ve spent quite a lot of time with the World Economic Forum over the last couple of years,\u201d Sepso commented. \u201cThey\u2019re interested in getting more exposure to gaming, and I think they looked at esports as an interesting angle to approach that from. I think they also found esports to be an interesting growth story, that over the coming years will receive plenty of governmental and regulatory interest. I think they wanted to be involved in that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Esports investment in 2020<\/span><\/h4>\n

At first glance, 2020 was the year of the celebrity investor. Sergio Aguero, Dion Waiters, David Beckham, Ben Simmons, Swae Lee, and many more invested in esports teams this year. The massive valuation of Beckham-co-owned Guild Esports after its stock-market debut \u2014 an org with no track record to speak of \u2014 led some to question the appropriateness of valuations in esports, and indeed, others have warned of the \u2018esports bubble<\/a>\u2019: a collective overvaluation of the industry, similar to dotcom companies in the late 1990s\/early 2000s.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

“I’ve been hearing esports is a bubble since 2007”<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sepso knows more about esports than just about anyone. What does he think of it all?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been hearing esports is a bubble since 2007. There was the initial influx of capital back then, and that\u2019s obviously continued until now. New valuations may be high, but that\u2019s just supply and demand. Many startups would disagree emphatically that the esports industry is a bubble. Do valuations go up and down? Yeah. But I think part of the problem with this idea that the entire industry is unsustainable is that you can\u2019t really correlate between teams and other startups; plenty of startups are doing just fine. Valuations of some esports teams are definitely ambitious. But I don\u2019t think that\u2019s necessarily reflective of the space as a whole.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As for athletes and rappers investing, Mike has his own unique perspective on that, too. \u201cYou know, it\u2019s funny, I often hear people say, \u2018this or that has happened in the industry recently\u2019, and to me, it\u2019s been happening for years. From my perspective, athletes and celebrities have been getting involved in esports for 15 years. Gilbert Arenas sponsored \u2018Final Boss\u2019 back in the Halo 2 days. Richard Jefferson has been involved in esports since then too.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Josh
Image credit: ReKTGlobal. Pictured: popular content creators Josh Richards (left) and Griffin Johnson (right) this month invested in ReKTGlobal, parent company of Rogue and London Royal Ravens<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI was at an esports\/NBA crossover event back in 2014. Daryl Morey, who was the Houston Rockets General Manager at the time and was on the board of directors at MLG, was trying to sign Dwight Howard from the Lakers. Because of the NBA\u2019s rules, we had to keep them out of the same room so that they didn\u2019t get fined for tampering.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe members of Linkin Park were big fans of gaming back in the day and were pretty involved with MLG. Vindex has a few celebrity athletes as minority owners. So from my perspective, athletes have been getting involved with esports for more than a decade. What\u2019s funny is that lately it\u2019s gone from being personal interest to business interest for a lot of guys.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Esports in 2021<\/span><\/h4>\n

Looking ahead to the new year, ESI spoke to Sepso about what Vindex\u2019s clients \u2014 including tournament organisers and game developers \u2014 are asking for in relation to esports events. \u201cWe plan to continue moving away from remote to in-studio events. There\u2019s a major client demand for live events next year. We\u2019re working with all of the necessary authorities and regulatory bodies to make sure anything we do is done safe. We have access to a lot of physical facilities, big sound-stages across the United States\u2026 we\u2019ll just be trying to get things going again.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Esports
Credit: Esports Engine. Picture taken during Call of Duty World League (CWL) contest between OpTic Gaming and 100 Thieves<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2020 has been a challenging, unpredictable year for all. But for Sepso and Vindex, the horizon appears brighter now than it was before.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cClients are reasonably tentative with how to run live events again, but we\u2019re seeing a small shift. There\u2019s a little light at the end of the tunnel now with the news of the COVID vaccines. We\u2019re cautiously optimistic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Mike Sepso \u2014 ESI Class of 2020 Hall of Fame inductee Mike Sepso \u2014 is an esports legend. The man that, along with Sundance DiGiovanni, founded Major League Gaming (MLG) is currently the CEO of Vindex \u2014 a company he also co-founded, again with DiGiovanni. Credit: Vindex. Pictured: company CEO Mike Sepso RELATED:\u00a0Vindex to Join … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":57196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","esi_template":"default","excluded":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7281,63,70,239,51,55,8707,54,5283,106,237,8699,240,8520,8716,238],"tags":[7113,7850,1586,7849],"class_list":["post-57195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-call-of-duty","category-commercial","category-counter-strike","category-europe","category-events-calendar-news","category-esports-titles","category-halo","category-interviews","category-investments","category-latest-news","category-news-by-region","category-media-rights","category-north-america","category-personnel","category-regulation-legal","category-uk","tag-belong-gaming-arenas","tag-esports-engine","tag-mike-sepso","tag-vindex"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMLG 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