TikTok owner ByteDance is set to acquire Moonton, developer and publisher of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, in a deal reportedly worth around $4B USD. 

According to Reuters, China-based ByteDance is making the acquisition through its video games unit, Nuverse. Fellow Chinese tech giant Tencent had also made an offer for Moonton, but ByteDance matched it last week, securing the prize. 

An internal source is reported to have confirmed Moonton will continue to operate independently, though it will help to accelerate Nuverse’s global gaming offerings. 

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang has seen extraordinary growth, especially in Asian markets, over the past year, and its esports events have secured sponsorships from big-name brands like Samsung, Razer, Secretlab, and Singtel. 

Nuverse’s games portfolio includes titles like Arena of Evolution, Blades of the Guardians, Burning Streetball, Eden No Tobira, Fairy Cats: Miracle Love, Strike Royale and Terminal Battleground. 

AYO.NEWS says:

The global mobile gaming market is already huge, but acquisitions like this indicate that major players like ByteDance and Tencent expect dramatic growth to continue for a long time to come.  

Staying with major Chinese gaming acquisitions, at the very end of last year, Tencent Holdings added several more game developers and publishers to its portfolio, through the acquisition of Leyou Technologies for $1.5B USD. 

Singapore-based games developer and publisher, Garena, has announced plans for a hybrid digital/in-person 2021 Free Fire World Series, with a $2M USD prize pool. 

Originally scheduled for 24 April and 1 May, but pushed back due to pandemic restrictions, the Free Fire World Series (FFWS 2021 SG) is now slated to be held in Singapore on 22-29 May. 

The event is being organised in partnership with the Singapore Tourism Board, Singapore CyberSports and Online Gaming Association (SCOGA).

Play-in’s will start on 22 May, featuring 12 teams that placed first or second in Free Fire’s regional tournaments, while the Finals, on 29 May, will see the top two Play-In teams battle against 10 seeds from each regional tournament. 

Justin Lye, Garena Global Esports Manager, commented: “We know how highly-anticipated the World Series is to our players and fans, so we’ve been working together with the relevant authorities to ensure we give them the biggest Free Fire tournament we’ve ever hosted. Safety has been and will continue to be our biggest priority as we carry out the event. This will be a good opportunity to welcome the very best Free Fire players to Singapore, where Garena was founded.”

Jean Ng, Executive Director of Attractions, Entertainment, and Tourism Concept Development for Singapore Tourism Board added: “We are proud to support our homegrown gaming company Garena as they prepare for FFWS 2021 SG – one of the world’s leading esports tournaments. The return of such events testify to Singapore’s growing reputation as an esports destination as well as our ability to host such events safely.”

AYO.NEWS says:

Free Fire has gained significant popularity over the past year since the pandemic crisis began, building on its already strong base in Asia and South America, but also making inroads elsewhere.

Given that all Free Fire tournaments in 2020 had to shift to an entirely online format, it’s easy to understand the enthusiasm for at least a partially in-person event in May, however, with the COVID situation still extremely unpredictable, we wouldn’t be surprised to see plans change at the last minute.

UK-based esports organisation, Rix.GG, has welcomed streamers Kelsie “KayPea” Pelling and João “Darkzone” Narciso to its team of influencers and content creators. 

Canada-based Kelsie “KayPea” Pelling is a Partnered Twitch streamer who is known for specialising in the mid-lane League of Legends role. Over the years KayPea has developed a large community of people around her to share in positive and competitive gameplay. Currently, KayPea is partnered with Turtle Beach, is a Red Bull Gamer, and is part of the official League Partner Program.

Portugal-based João “Darkzone” Narciso is a Partnered Twitch streamer who won the VALORANT Spike Nations of Twitch as a member of Team Portugal. He is best-known for playing first-person shooter games like VALORANT and Warzone. He is also a friend of MissRage, and the two will continue to make collaborative content under the Rix.GG banner.

Jamie Lewis, founder and CEO of Rix.GG, said: “Kelsie represents our first real foray out of Europe, and her status as a globally popular streamer is exactly in line with our global ambition. I can’t wait to see KayPea where our creative team can take one of my favourite League streamers of all time.”

Kelsie “KayPea” Pelling, influencer, said: “Very pleased to be working together with Rix.GG going forward. They have a great group of young people in charge with quality experience in the scene and I’m excited to see what we can accomplish together!”

João “Darkzone” Narciso, commented: “I have no words to describe how excited I am to join Rix.GG. I know I’ll be surrounded by very talented and amazing creators and I can’t wait to be a part of this family. This is something I’ve been waiting for for a long time. Can’t wait to see what this journey brings me and Rix.GG. Let’s break some records together!”

Staying with Rix.GG, at the start of the month the organisation also signed popular Minecraft streamer Callum “SeaPeeKay” Knight as a content creator.

Real Luck Group, operator of esports-first betting platform Luckbox, has launched a new affiliate program with Paysafe Group’s Income Access. 

Luckbox now offers esports fans the opportunity to bet on a wide range of markets across all major esports, with live streams of popular games including CS:GO, Dota 2, League of Legends, FIFA, and NBA2K. The platform also recently added wagering for over 100 traditional sports, including football, basketball, hockey, soccer, and tennis. 

Luckbox says its affiliate program will leverage Income Access platform’s robust reporting features to make data-based marketing decisions to more effectively promote its products. It will also be leveraging the Income Access Network, which provides access to qualified advertising partners and content marketing support. 

As previously reported, Luckbox also recently integrated Paysafe’s Skrill and NETELLER payment options, making its product more accessible to more customers. 

In addition to Luckbox’s core product offering, affiliates will also be able to promote various player promotions, including event-specific free bet opportunities, combo bet cash back offers, and other initiatives to attract new players and encourage customer loyalty. 

Affiliates will also have access to a support team providing guidance and delivering strategic creative assets to drive customer engagement. 

Quentin Martin, CEO at Luckbox, said: “We are delighted to formally launch our affiliate programme and know that the Income Access platform will introduce Luckbox to thousands of players.

“Affiliate marketing is a proven, cost-effective channel in the igaming industry and, as a leading name in the esports betting industry, we will work to ensure our affiliate programme is also the best in the business, both for our partners and our players. We look forward to working with Income Access, the existing network and new affiliates as we rapidly scale our customer acquisition efforts throughout 2021.”

Tara Wilson, Chief Operating Officer at Income Access, Paysafe Group, said: “We’ve been eagerly anticipating the launch of the Luckbox affiliate programme and are excited to see our platform and full suite of services drive the brand’s growth. By bringing together our comprehensive affiliate solution with Luckbox’s array of exciting products, we know this partnership is poised for long-term success.”

AYO.NEWS says:

Considering Luckbox’s incredible organic growth thus far, we expect the rollout of a strong affiliate program like this, powered by a well-proven platform, will significantly accelerate growth further. For affiliates, it’s also a great opportunity to capitalise on the insane growth in esports betting we’ve seen over the past year. 

Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports (AUE) is growing its European presence, expanding into Germany, France and Poland.

It means German, French, and Polish students will be able to join those from Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom in its Spring Season. AUE has also said it intends to expand into the Nordic countries over the coming months. 

AUE, which uses a platform created and operated by GGTech Entertainment, aims to support the growth of university esports across countries, and create a thriving global competitive gaming environment.

The UK’s Spring season of Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports kicked off last month, with over 3,000 students from 91 universities competing across titles including CS:GO, League of Legends, Rainbow Six Siege, and VALORANT.

You can catch the finals, streamed live on Twitch from 29 March – 1 April. AUE’s last UK Winter season racked up over 1M tournament broadcast live views. Across Spain, Italy, and the UK, last Winter’s qualifying tournaments attracted over 5M viewers across various channels. 

Stockholm-based esports data and statistics company Abios has launched a new age compliance solution. 

According to the company, the new solution provides up-to-date information covering planned rosters, player ages, birthdays, and the proportion of underage players in teams participating in major tournaments and titles – information critical for bookmakers and esports betting platforms to maintain regulatory compliance. The data is retrieved directly from Abios’ API weekly. 

Several jurisdictions, including Sweden, the UK, Spain, and US states, are now implementing various regulations regarding betting on esports matches involving the participation of minors – with some prohibiting betting when minors feature on rosters, and others when minors make up the majority of players.  

Oskar Fröberg, CEO of Abios, commented: “Over the past 18 months, we have offered player age compliance as an add-on service for several of our large customers in the affected jurisdictions. Due to the increased demand and incoming regulations in more regions, we are happy to announce that esports compliance will now officially become part of our product offering.

“Having run the product in a live environment for an extended period, without any errors, we can now comfortably offer it to the broader market.”

AYO.NEWS says:

With esports betting regulations becoming more complex, and the liabilities of non-compliance growing, betting operators very much need this kind of tool to make offering esports betting manageable. 

It’s also interesting to ponder whether or not, with many esports organisations and leagues now partnered with betting operators and the commercial importance of gambling rapidly increasing, there will be a trend towards age segregated rosters and even age segregated tournaments and leagues?