NATIONS VENTURES BACKS REAL-TIME SPORTS PLATFORM & MARKETPLACE OBSESH

Nations Ventures has announced a strategic investment in real-time platform and sports marketplace Obsesh. 

Though financial details have not been disclosed, the venture capital fund, which is majority-owned by We Are Nations, says the investment will help Obsesh develop products, launch its marketplace, and acquire athletes.  

Obsesh, which was co-founded by female entrepreneurs Tracy Benson (Home Depot, Best Buy and Monster) and Jonalyn Morris (Beats by Dre, Disney Interactive and Loot Crate) aims to solves a problem that many of today’s athletes, across both traditional sports and esports, face; that its very difficult to turn followers into paying customers and make a decent living.

Currently Obsesh, which is also backed by Stadia Ventures and Newchip, is focused on traditional sports, though it does have an esports section, giving fans the chance to play video games against their favourite sports personalities. 

Discussing the news, Patrick Mahoney, Nations Ventures General Partner, said: “The Obsesh team is well-positioned in the sports market and has taken a unique approach to a historically ignored group of skilled sports talent. At Nations, we look for companies with a great product, strong team, and a go-to market strategy, and we see Obsesh as having the ability to effectively accelerate across both sports and esports. 

“In addition, we saw right away the synergy with Obsesh and several of our portfolio companies including Insiders, Echelon and A8 esports. We are also already implementing We Are Nations as their scalable merch solution for both retail and custom athlete integrations.”

While Tracy Benson, CEO and Co-founder of Obsesh, added: “From the minute we met Patrick, Dan Cardell and the team at Nations, we knew there was a shared vision to not only build Obsesh as the number-one platform for sports fans, but to take the platform into esports.

“Nations without a doubt hit on the manpower, network and industry knowledge to help us scale our business and accelerate our vision to become the number-one go-to marketplace for all sports.”

AYO.NEWS says:

Though Obsesh has so far focused on helping traditional sports athletes monetise their brands, it’s easy to see how it could make a big impact in the gaming and esports worlds too – where the difficulties in turning popularity into an income are just as great. It will be interesting to see if there’s a noticeable shift in focus for Obsesh over the next year.