eSports
Intema Closes Second Tranche of Financing
Intema Solutions Inc. is pleased to announce that further to its press releases dated June 17, 2021 and August 31, 2021, it has completed a second tranche of its non-brokered private placement of subscription receipts (the “Private Placement”), bringing the total gross proceeds to $10,007,000 of a maximum of $15,000,000. The second tranche consisted of the issuance of 8,594,000 subscription receipts (each a “Subscription Receipt”) at a price of $0.50 per Subscription Receipt (the “Subscription Price”) for gross proceeds of $4,297,000. The Private Placement is being undertaken by the Corporation in connection with its previously announced proposed transaction (the “Proposed Transaction”), whereby the Corporation will acquire all of the issued and outstanding securities of Livestream Gaming Ltd. (“Livestream”), owner of LOOT.BET.
“We are pleased and proud that our current and future shareholders have shown such confidence in Intema’s future plans, allowing us to reach the minimum amount we set for the Livestream acquisition,” said Laurent Benezra, President and CEO of Intema. “With the progress we have made in recent weeks and the continued momentum in the esports and iGaming sectors, we have seen a significant increase in demand for our financing, which leads us to believe that we’ll be able to reach our $15 million target.”
The Subscription Receipts were issued pursuant to a subscription receipt agreement entered into between Intema and the subscription receipt agent (the “Subscription Receipt Agreement”). Pursuant to the Subscription Receipt Agreement, each Subscription Receipt will be automatically exchanged for one unit of the Corporation (a “Unit”), requiring no additional consideration or action on the part of the holder, upon the satisfaction of certain escrow release conditions in connection with the Proposed Transaction, including (i) all conditions precedent to the completion of the Proposed Transaction having been satisfied, (ii) the Corporation not being in breach or default of any of its covenants or obligations under the Subscription Receipt Agreement, and (ii) the escrow agent having received a notice from the Corporation that all conditions precedent to the completion of the Proposed Transaction have been satisfied or waived, other than the release of the escrowed funds to the Corporation pursuant to the Subscription Receipt Agreement (the “Escrow Release Conditions”). All proceeds of the Private Placement are being held in escrow pending the satisfaction of the Escrow Release Conditions. If the Proposed Transaction is not completed within 180 days of the closing of the first tranche of the Private Placement, the Subscription Receipts will be deemed to be cancelled and the holders of Subscription Receipts will receive an amount equal to the aggregate Subscription Price of their Subscription Receipts and the interest earned, if any, on such Subscription Price.
Each Unit consists of one common share of the Corporation (a “Common Share”) and one-half of one common share purchase warrant of the Corporation (each whole warrant, a “Warrant”). Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one Common Share at an exercise price of $0.90 for a period of 12 months from the date of issuance.
In connection with the Private Placement, the Corporation, upon satisfaction of the Escrow Release Conditions, shall pay eligible arm’s length parties (each a “Finder”): (i) a cash fee of 6% of the aggregate value of Subscription Receipts sold pursuant to the Private Placement in respect of subscriptions referred to the Corporation or directly sourced by the Finder and issued on the closing of the first tranche of the Private Placement; and (ii) a number of Finders warrants (each a “Finder Warrant“) equal to 8% of the Subscription Receipts sold that were referred to or directly sourced by the Finder to the Corporation. The Finder Warrants will be issued on the same terms as the Warrants.
The Corporation intends to use the net proceeds raised under the Private Placement entirely to fund the Proposed Transaction.
Certain officers and a director of the Corporation subscribed for an aggregate of 750,000 Subscription Receipts pursuant to the Private Placement, for total aggregate proceeds of $375,000. As a result of this insider participation, the Private Placement constitutes a related-party transaction as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 (“MI 61-101”). Neither the Corporation, nor to the knowledge of the Corporation after reasonable inquiry, a related party, has knowledge of any material information concerning the Corporation or its securities that has not been generally disclosed. The Private Placement is exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101, as it was a distribution of securities for cash and neither the fair market value of the Subscription Receipts distributed to, nor the consideration received from, interested parties exceeded $2,500,000. The Corporation did not file a material change report more than 21 days before the expected closing of the Private Placement because the details of the participation therein by related parties of the Corporation were not settled until shortly prior to the first closing of the Private Placement and the Corporation wished to close on an expedited basis for business reasons.
The Proposed Transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including, without limitation, approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. There can be no assurance that the Proposed Transaction will be completed as proposed or at all.
eSports
Community Gaming Joins Forces with Moonton as Official Esports Partner for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang
Community Gaming (CG), the leading esports platform for automated tournament payouts and sponsor of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang’s professional league for the Latin America Region, MPL LATAM, now supports developing esports communities in Latin America in collaboration with Moonton.
This partnership is a significant boost to CG’s existing advantages associated with its grant program, a partner-backed initiative to provide organizers with economic resources based on the performance and growth of their local gaming communities. Tournament organizers can apply to receive platform support, prizes, in-game currency, items, and tournament professional assistance including “Tournament Mode,” a special setting on Mobile Legends: Bang Bang that grants organizers enhanced features, such as unlocking all available skins in the game for players to fully enjoy a complete and unique MLBB pro tournament experience.
Wei Xu, regional esports operation manager at Moonton, said: “We are excited to announce the partnership with Community Gaming. Community Gaming is the most accepted esports platform in our community in Latin America. We hope this partnership brings new experiences to the players.”
As MPL comes to its end this year, CG will also be collaborating with MLBB professional teams for a flash $4000 prize tournament set to enhance the visibility of the company’s services. This event marks a pivotal moment set to highlight CG’s preparedness to impact the professional MLBB scene.
Community Gaming and Moonton are no strangers to mutual cooperation. In the past both companies have partnered to develop the Dawn of Heroes Series, a set of events in 2021 and 2022 that offered qualifying slots to MLBB’s Signature Competition, Liga LATAM. The companies have also worked together on Peru’s University Tournament INTERU 2023 and currently Community Gaming hosts significant activity of MLBB Tournaments from over 12 countries on a monthly basis.
eSports
Esports player age verification should be simple
Despite the continuing professionalisation of esports, misconceptions about player age persist – particularly of underage pros playing in professional esports.
Back in 2021, the PandaScore whitepaper dug into the data around player age in professional esports and found that the average age of a pro player was just under 24 years old. By comparison, the same report noted that the average age for a men’s professional footballer was about 26 years old.
While there is no great gulf in player ages between esports and traditional sports, there’s more apprehension around this topic once there’s a keyboard or controller involved. There are good reasons behind this focus, but the truth is that a simple and straightforward product makes player age verification easy.
The reason behind the focus on player age
Compliance with player age requirements has been a particular concern as legalised sports and esports betting rolls out across the US. These are completely reasonable concerns, partly because of the state-by-state nature of American regulation, but also due to past compliance issues in the likes of ITF tennis.
Age compliance isn’t a challenge unique to esports. It does have younger players in the same way tennis does, so it’s a space that operators consider a potential risk area based on precedent. While it’s understandable to be vigilant about ensuring age compliance across your whole book, the reality in esports is it’s just like any other sport.
However, with this greater attention, it’s crucial for esports suppliers to have a simple, high-quality solution that is flexible for any jurisdiction – and not just treat it as a spreadsheet-based, tack-on service.
Importance in the US
It’s abundantly clear that if you want to ensure compliance in the US space, player age verification isn’t a nice to have, it’s an integral part of your product. Across each jurisdiction player age verification can vary – something we’ve seen in Europe as well such as Sweden’s rule that a match must have 60% of players over the age of 18 for an operator to offer match bets.
In sports, it’s fairly straightforward to implement but has been an oversight from sports data providers in the past. It’s quite easy to provide, it just requires collecting data from multiple, reputable sources outside of the match itself.
PandaScore has been collecting player age verification data since it was founded in 2017 to ensure compliance no matter the regulation, no matter the jurisdiction.
Embedding player age verification in your product
Ensuring age compliance was a founding principle for our product suite – we included it as a key datapoint in our API, which is the bedrock of our broader offering. Suppliers should have this embedded in their products, rather than an additional service.
PandaScore believes that offering player age verification as part of an API and integrated into your service means you can be more confident in your compliance not just for individual esports titles, but from match to match.
For us it’s simple: one of PandaScore’s founding principles is to not rely on only one single data source, but leverage multiple quality data sources that we can trust. We have a longstanding and highly developed process that guarantees a level of accuracy for player age verification that’s in line with regulation and gives operators the confidence that they’re compliant. Our practice of using multiple data sources means that double and triple-checking information to ensure player age compliance is in our nature.
With player age verification built into an API, operators can leverage the data to match the compliance needs of any given jurisdiction. This can be done by integrating player age data via the API, it can be included in their feed via our odds product with the flexibility to add exclusions where necessary, or if an operators wants it in a simper form, it can be done via request.
Player age verification might seem like a simple item, but is a compliance matter that’s essential to operating in a proper fashion. Noting the concerns and greater focus on player ages in esports, it’s something that’s important to get right: player age verification should be entrenched in esports products themselves to give operators the flexibility and simplicity that they need.
Author: Oliver Niner, Head of Sales at PandaScore.
eSports
CS2 Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2024 SuperComputer: NaVi to bounce back after Blast Fall Final loss
Final: Natus Vincere (36.5%) to beat Team Vitality (28.1%)
Semifinal 1: Natus Vincere (52.6%) to beat MOUZ (16.3%)
Semifinal 2: Team Vitality (47.7%) to beat G2 Esports (18.7%)
Quarterfinal 1: G2 Esports (39.8%) to beat FaZe Clan (32.8%)
Quarterfinal 2: MOUZ (35.9%) to beat Eternal Fire (24.7%)
Group stage:
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Natus Vincere – 48.7% to finish 1st; 17.0% to finish 2nd; 84.1% to make playoffs
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Team Vitality – 40.8% to finish 1st; 17.4% to finish 2nd; 77.7% to make playoffs
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G2 Esports – 19.3% to finish 1st; 20.4% to finish 2nd; 56.7% to make playoffs
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MOUZ – 14.5% to finish 1st; 21.8% to finish 2nd; 53.0% to make playoffs
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FaZe Clan – 13.9% to finish 1st; 21.0% to finish 2nd; 50.2% to make playoffs
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Eternal Flame – 40.7% to finish 1st; 16.2% to finish 2nd; 40.7% to make playoffs
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Liquid – 16.3% to finish 7-8th; 35.7% to make playoffs
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Virtus.pro – 15.4% to finish 7-8th; 29.9% to make playoffs
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Astralis – 28.9% to finish 9-12th; 31.5% to make playoffs
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The MongolZ – 32.7% to finish 9-12th; 25.4% to make playoffs
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Complexity – 34.3% to finish 9-12th; 21.2% to make playoffs
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Heroic – 26.8% to finish 9-12th; 23.5% to make playoffs
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paiN – 36.5% to finish 13-16th; 21.0% to make playoffs
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FURIA – 36.4% to finish 13-16th; 20.9% to make playoffs
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9z – 44.7% to finish 13-16th; 14.6% to make playoffs
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Imperial – 49.1% to finish 13-16th; 13.9% to make playoffs
It has been quite the run for NaVi despite their loss with back to back grand finals in recent weeks but CSDB.gg’s predictive model suggests there will be no let up for the Ukrainian esports organisation.
G2 will also be looking to build more momentum in preparation for Majors season with NiKo on a quest to finally get over the line this year to win his first major title. Hopefully Rio won’t have to see a repeat of his reaction in the semifinals at BLAST Premier Fall Final 2024 where he punched a hole in a table after losing out to Team Vitality in a key moment.
However, the hosts of Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2024 may want to lockdown any nearby furniture and reinforce their desks if G2 are set for disappointment at the semifinals stage as predicted by the CSDB.gg SuperComputer.
A victory in Rio could be even more consequential for how the end of the year shapes up for the leading teams on the circuit. The Valve Global rankings have both teams close at the very top (NaVi at 1988 and G2 at 1953) meaning a win for either team could hand them a key advantage when it comes to who enters the Majors as top seed.
Back-to-back wins in T1 events for G2, should they prosper in Rio, would set the Berlin-based team on an incredible trajectory going into the winter months.
Meanwhile, Brazilian hopes for glory look slight according to the CSDB.gg SuperComputer with FURIA, the team co-owned by Neymar, having only been given a 20.9% chance of even making the playoffs.
They are the leading contenders to make an impact for the home crowd but there are other teams flying the flag for Brazil with paiN and Imperial also set to give it their best to give local fans something to cheer on.
In terms of forecasted matchups of note, G2 and FaZe Clan could offer up a fascinating encounter in the quarterfinals should both teams qualify, with each organisation rated as having a strong chance of making the semis with little to separate them should they meet.
How was the CSDB.gg CS2 Tournament SuperComputer created?
The CSDB.gg CS2 Tournament SuperComputer is a predictive model created using world ranking points, team quality ratings and performance trends. An element of randomness is also included in the model to avoid the best teams and players always winning, to reflect the fact that upsets can happen.
Every tournament is simulated 1,000 times with the results aggregated into a percentage rating of the chances teams or players have to achieve the predicted result.
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