The competitive gaming industry is booming. Over the past few years, eSports have been receiving a lot of attention. Monetary investments, however, have, until now, been lacking. Over the past few months, eSports organizations have been receiving Series A investments from outside sources. This round of investment is the first of the year, and Cloud9 came out swinging.
Cloud9 runs teams in several games including League of Legends, Overwatch, CS:GO, and Hearthstone. Additionally, the organization recently acquired the London franchise for the new Overwatch League that will start in 2018.
The list of new investors to Cloud9 is long. It includes WWE, the Beverly Hills Sports Council, and San Francisco Giants player Hunter Pence.
If you are wondering why investors would put so much stock in eSports, the words of WWE CFO George Barrios state it pretty clearly. He said: “At WWE, we are constantly looking to innovate through our venture portfolio, and eSports is particularly exciting to us. We believe Jack and the team at Cloud9, with their vision, enthusiasm and ability to execute, are the right partners.”
Owner of the organization Jack Etienne said of the investments: “We will now invest in expanding across leagues, outfitting our training facilities and housing, and taking the entire organization to the next level.”
Etienne also has hinted at interest in building a facility just for Cloud9 teams. If investments in the organization continue to stack up, this will be an easy goal to achieve.
Cloud9 was formed in 2013 by Etienne and his wife Paullie Etienne. It is the largest name in North American eSports with eight different teams. Etienne hoes to expand further in the future.
