EarlyGame
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EarlyGame is a German video game and entertainment website and brand that publishes news, reviews and video game content related to gaming, esports and pop culture. Apart from publishing daily content, EarlyGame also hosts live shows and events..[1] The site is run by the eSports Media GmbH, a Munich-based company founded by Fabian Furch and Leopold Ingelheim in September 2019.[2] EarlyGame launched in English in February 2020 and a German edition followed in mid-March 2020.[3]
As of 2022-09-02 EarlyGame has become one of the globally fastest growing networks in the gaming industry, attracting over 8 million monthly users, 60% compared to mid 2021, and additional 30 million users via social media.[4]
History[edit]
EarlyGame's website was launched in February 2020, with an initial focus on covering major esports games, including League of Legends, CS:GO, Dota 2, Overwatch and FIFA, but also smaller titles such as Hearthstone or MTGA.[3] As of April 2022, the site covers League of Legends, Call of Duty, FIFA, Apex Legends, Valorant, Rocket League and Fortnite, as well as gaming and influencer news.[2]
Since June 2021, EarlyGame provides live results and stats for esports matches in partnership with data and analytics providers Bayes Esports and SHADOW.gg.[5][6]
Nominations and Prices[edit]
In November 2021, they were selected as one of the top 101 sports companies and startups based in Germany.[7] In December 2021 Fabian Furch and Leopold Ingelheim were nominated as founders of the year[8] by the magazine "starting up" with EarlyGame winning the award.[9]
EarlyGame was also nominated twice for the Gruender.de Awards in the lifestyle category.[10]
On 1 December 2022, EarlyGame was listed by sifted for early-stage startups to watch[11] and was mentioned multiple times as one of the top start-ups from Munich.[12][13]
Funding[edit]
German publisher Olympia-Verlag GmbH, owner of sports magazine kicker, purchased a 15% stake in EarlyGame in March 2020 which was later increased by another 15%.[14] As of June 2021, Olympia-Verlag and kicker report ownership of just under 40% in the company.[15] The majority stake in EarlyGame is held by its two co-founders.[16]
On June 24, 2021, the website started a seed investment campaign on the German crowdfunding platform Seedmatch[17] to bring additional investors alongside Olympia-Verlag. eSports Media GmbH raised a total of €700,000 from 511 Seedmatch investors as of August 21, 2021.[18]
Ahead of the campaign, EarlyGame reported it had also attracted an undisclosed Asian Investor from Singapore. With Christoph Winterling, Chief Marketing and Sales Officer at Bologna F.C. 1909 and his family, EarlyGame closed the overall funding round with a total of €850,000.[19]
Since its founding, EarlyGame has collected a total of about €2 Million.[20]
In 2022, EarlyGame has entered the second round of investments.[21] After a successful year with revenue increasing by over 300 percent, the company is now looking to make EarlyGame profitable in 2023.[22] The main investor kicker has even talked about plans for 2026, with EarlyGame looking for revenue over €20 Million and over 30 Million monthly users.[citation needed]
Partnerships and Projects[edit]
EarlyGame partners with a variety of brands, including German experience voucher retailer Jochen Schweizer,[23] coaching services provider Gamers Academy, gaming gear brand HyperX, and Groß Holding.[24] The company also partners with Laureus Sport for Good on the annual EarlyGame Awards, a collaboration that has been renewed recently.[when?]
Together with Laureus Sport for Good, EarlyGame supported a virtual racing event where pros like René Rast or António Félix da Costa competed against sim racers for a good cause.[25] This event counted over 600 applicants and 31,000 test laps.[26] In November 2021 Mathias Laterna, head of B2 Sports and the Bavarian Football Association, announced that they will be closely working with EarlyGame to foster their amateur esports efforts.[citation needed] Since December 2021 EarlyGame cooperates with gigmit by announcing the "artist of the day" to further connect the gaming and music industry.[27]
In addition to that, EarlyGame also partners with the GTÜ Gesellschaft für Technische Überwachung GmbH and supports the German esports community via this expanded partnership.[28] This includes hosting the GTÜ Rocket League Cup as well as sponsoring the EarlyGame Awards, which were presented in Munich at the end of February 2022.[29]
In late 2021, another partnership was concluded with EURONICS Deutschland eG, the new sponsor of EarlyGame's new League of Legends platform "RiftFeed.gg".[30]
In June 2022 ESL Gaming[31] and EarlyGame have joined forces to launch their new mobile gaming brand and platform MobileMatters covering the latest releases with news guides, and video content targeted towards mobile gaming.[32]
The newest partner of EarlyGame is the metal poster company Displate.[33]
EarlyGame Awards[edit]
In February 2021, the EarlyGame Awards in favor of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation were presented for the first time.[34] The awards were accompanied by a charity raffle, organized by EarlyGame, which raised donations for the Laureus support programs. The awards were given out in three categories and the winners were determined by community voting:[35]
- Gamer of the Year
- Upcoming Streamer of the Year
- Social Personality of the Year
Streamer and YouTuber Elias "ELIGELLA" Nerlich was named Gamer of the Year 2021. The winner of the Social Personality of the Year award for 2021 was the German FIFA esports player and current FIFA eWorld Cup winner Mohammed "MoAuba" Harkous while VfB eSports player Niklas Luginsland won the Upcoming Streamer of the Year category.[36]
In 2022, the EarlyGame Awards in favor of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation came back for a second time and were broadcasted on the EarlyGame website on February 27th.[37] In addition to the three former categories Gamer of the Year, Upcoming Streamer of the Year and Social Personality of the Year[38], the award show featured new prizes for the Esports Player of the Year and Esports Team of the Year.[39] German Esports Team Entropy won the new Esports Team of the Year category[40], while Niklas Ludginsland was namend Esports Player of the Year.[41]
The Awards were additionally featured on German television.[42]
References[edit]
- ↑ "EARLYGAME UND LAUREUS SPORT FOR GOOD VERLÄNGERN IHRE KOOPERATION FÜR DEN GUTEN ZWECK LANGFRISTIG MIT DEN EARLYGAME AWARDS". Laureus Sport for Good. 2021-06-24. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "EarlyGame startet Crowdfunding Kampagne". MSN. 2021-07-19. Archived from the original on 2021-07-19. Retrieved 2021-07-19. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Neben den Zielen, die man verfolgt, sollte der Spaß am gemeinsamen Projekt im Vordergrund stehen | StartupValley Magazine" (in Deutsch). 26 March 2020. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
- ↑ "Crowdinvesting für EarlyGame". www.seedmatch.de. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
- ↑ "EarlyGame enhances data visualisation with Bayes Esports and Shadow.GG". 2021-06-28. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
- ↑ "EarlyGame Partners Bayes Esports and Shadow.gg | iGamingFuture". igamingfuture.com. 2021-06-28. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
- ↑ "101 Top Sports Startups and Companies in Germany - BestStartup.eu". 2021-11-25. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
- ↑ "EarlyGame nominiert für Start-Up des Jahres". kicker (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2022-12-27.
- ↑ "Auf dem Weg zum Global ePlayer". StartingUp (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2023-01-02.
- ↑ "Gründer des Jahres Award | Der Award zum Gründerkongress". Gründer des Jahres (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2023-01-04.
- ↑ "Esports & live streaming". sifted.eu. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
- ↑ "25 junge Münchner Startups, die jeder kennen sollte". deutsche-startups.de (in Deutsch). 2020-08-04. Retrieved 2023-01-02.
- ↑ "38 Top Sports Startups and Companies in Munich - BestStartup.eu". 2022-09-25. Retrieved 2023-01-02.
- ↑ ""Kicker" investiert in neue E-Sport-News-Plattform "Early Game" | MEEDIA" (in Deutsch). 2020-03-17. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
- ↑ "EarlyGame startet Crowdfunding-Kampagne". kicker (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2022-12-27.
- ↑ Verkaufen, Werben & (2021-01-26). "Kicker verstärkt sein Engagement bei Earlygame | W&V". www.wuv.de (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2022-12-27.
- ↑ "E-Sports-Plattform: EarlyGame öffnet sich Privatanlegern". www.nordbayern.de. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
- ↑ Theobald, Tim (2020-03-17). "EarlyGame - Kicker beteiligt sich an E-Sports-Plattform". Horizont.net. Retrieved 2023-01-02.
- ↑ "Earlygame sichert sich 850.000 Euro von Investoren und der Crowd". Munich Startup (in Deutsch). 2021-08-27. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
- ↑ "Esports & live streaming". sifted.eu. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
- ↑ "Mix aus unterschiedlichen Charakteren und Skills". StartupValley Magazine (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2022-12-27.
- ↑ "EarlyGame with crowdfunding campaign". Sports of the Day. 2022-05-04. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
- ↑ "Sim-Racing Team Casting". Jochen Schweizer Arena (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2022-12-27.
- ↑ Janker, Marcel (2021-02-10). "EarlyGame und Groß Holding GmbH gehen Kooperation ein". Schön dich zu sehen!. Archived from the original on 2021-07-20. Retrieved 2021-07-19. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Digitaler Asphalt glüht für guten Zweck: Rutronik Racing veranstaltet virtuelles Rennevent und will Spenden sammeln - Sport - Pforzheimer-Zeitung". Pforzheimer Zeitung (in Deutsch). April 2020. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
- ↑ Sport (2021-04-22). "EARLYGAME AKTIVIERT AUDIENCE MIT SIM RACING". SportMarkt - Onlinemagazin (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2022-12-28.
- ↑ "EarlyGame und gigmit kooperieren". beta.musikwoche.de. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
- ↑ "Engagement mit EarlyGame ausgeweitet: GTÜ will eSport-Community begeistern". GTÜ – News (in Deutsch). 2021-12-02. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
- ↑ GTÜ, Firma (2021-12-02). "Engagement mit EarlyGame ausgeweitet: GTÜ will eSport-Community begeistern". News-Research (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2022-12-28.
- ↑ Wiedmann, Ellen (2022-02-23). "EURONICS treibt Gaming-Engagement weiter voran". EURONICS Deutschland eG (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2023-01-04.
- ↑ "Mobile gaming levels up as ESL Gaming and EarlyGame join forces to launch MobileMatters - ESL FACEIT Group". 2022-06-29. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
- ↑ "ESL Gaming & EarlyGame Join Forces to Launch New Mobile Gaming Brand - IT News Africa - Up to date technology news, IT news, Digital news, Telecom news, Mobile news, Gadgets news, Analysis and Reports". www.itnewsafrica.com. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
- ↑ "Displate Partners With EarlyGame". media.displate.com. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
- ↑ Newstral.com (2021-02-05). "Kicker.de: «Die Award-Show für einen guten Zweck: EarlyGame Awards zugunsten von Laureus Sport for Good»". Newstral (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2022-12-28.
- ↑ "EarlyGame Awards zugunsten von Laureus Sport for Good". Laureus. 2021-02-24.
- ↑ "FIFA-Rollstuhl-eSportler gewinnt bedeutenden Preis als Streamer". TAG24 (in Deutsch). 21 February 2021. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
- ↑ "EarlyGame Awards zugunsten von Laureus Sport for Good sind zurück". MSN (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2022-12-28.
- ↑ ""Social Personality of the Year" Award für Letsplay4Charity e.V." LetsPlay4Charity (in Deutsch). 2022-02-27. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
- ↑ "EarlyGame Awards 2022: Die Gewinner". MSN (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2022-12-28.
- ↑ "Entropy gewinnt EarlyGame Award zugunsten von Laureus Sport for Good – Entropy" (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2022-12-28.
- ↑ "EarlyGame Awards 2022: Die Gewinner". kicker (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2022-12-28.
- ↑ "EarlyGame Awards 2022". TV Today.[dead link]
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