Esports Entertainment sees registered users, customer deposits surge during CS:GO esports tournament

Esports Entertainment Group Inc (NASDAQ:GMBL) saw its registered users more than quintuple during the recent two-week Counter Strike:Global Offensive (CS:GO) esports tournament on VIE.gg, the company announced on Thursday. Users grew by more than 400% compared to the same two-week period last month, and customer deposits were four times higher over the same span.  The company’s partner, Allied Esports, itself a subsidiary of Allied Esports Entertainment (NASDAQ:AESE), drew 1.7 million unique viewers for the VIE.gg CS:GO Legend Series tournament. The competition, which ended Sunday, also generated more than 1 million hours watched and reached a peak of 98,000 viewers at one time, making it the most-watched Legend Series event since the series was created in 2017, the company said. READ: Esports Entertainment sets revenue guidance at $13M and $25M in fiscal 2021 and 2022 respectively Each broadcast during the tournament featured a betting component, including dynamic real-time odds that shifted and remained on display over the course of the match. “We are absolutely thrilled with the viewership numbers for the VIE.gg CS:GO Legend Series, a new benchmark for Allied Esports and a great introduction of our VIE.gg brand to fans around the world,” Esports Entertainment CEO Grant Johnson said in a statement. “With a 400% increase in new users and 300% increase in deposits, we’ve clearly demonstrated there is demand for our platform.” The tournament was produced from Allied Esport’ HyperX esports studio in Hamburg, Germany and reached audiences across multiple continents. The company worked with its partners to broadcast the Twitch streams in six languages — English, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, French and German — and the Chinese streaming platform HUYA carried both English and Chinese streams.  “This tournament was an excellent start to our partnership with Esports Entertainment Group, as we introduced their wagering platform to millions of people around the world, and we look forward to creating more valuable content with them in the near future,” Allied Esports Entertainment CEO Frank Ng added. “The VIE.gg CS:GO Legend Series is a great example of the ability of our tournaments to deliver dedicated content to an enthusiastic, engaged audience, and we will continue to develop these brands to meet the needs of partners as the esports industry continues to evolve.” The event featured Counter-Strike teams from multiple European countries, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region and South America, including 7 teams ranked in the top 50 globally.  Kazakhstan’s Winstrike, which jumped from 60th in the world at the start of the tournament to 34th, beat 32nd-ranked Heretics from France 3-0 in the best-of-five Grand Final to claim the first title and take home €17,000 of the €50,000 total prize pool.  “We are very happy with the results of our first esports tournament sponsorship and the strong uptick in new sign ups and deposits we saw as a result of reaching millions of fans globally,” VIE.gg VP of Marketing and Head of Esports Magnus Leppäniemi said. “The VIE.gg CS:GO Legend Series provided a great opportunity to support tier 2 and tier 3 teams, a large and important segment of the esports community, and we look forward to continuing our support of these teams in the future.” This was Allied Esports’ seventh edition of the CS:GO Legend Series and the 13th Legend Series event overall, part of an effort to expand the competitive landscape and raise the total prize pool for teams ranked outside of the first tier. Every game from the tournament can be watched in full here. Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com Follow him on Twitter @andrew_kessel