Drake is placing his bets on Players’ Lounge, an esports gambling startup. Drake’s investment to the platform comes after the artist provided funding to 100 Thieves, another esports company with over $25 million in funding, back in November.
Players’ Lounge is a startup that lets users place bets on esports games and competitions.
“If you haven’t been to an event like this, imagine the student bar in the hometown of a college during an away game-high energy, loud and dramatic,” Austin Woolridge said in a blog post.
Founded in 2014 by Woolridge and Zack Dixon, the company has been able to scale by ten times after being a part of Y Combinator in 2018, according to Woolridge.
Players’ Lounge announced that it has reached $3 million in funding with the help of investors like Strauss Zelnick, Marissa Mayer, Comcast Ventures, Macro Ventures, and others.
The company plans to use its funding to expand its development teams and offer more games the users can bet on and build out a streaming feature. So far, Players’ Lounge users can only gamble on a library of 10 games that include Fortnite, Madden 2019, FIFA 2019, NBA 2K 2019, and Call of Duty.
“We’re growing like crazy, but it still feels like we’re cultivating a tight-knit community of gamers and doing something we love,” Woolridge said.
Drake is amongst a list of rappers who have their sights on gaming investments. T.I. has invested in a mobile trivia game through his investment syndicate, while Soulja Boy is working to create his own game console.
It is no surprise that the gaming industry is catching the attention of a diverse set of investors. The industry is expected to continue to bring in billions. According to a report by the Entertainment Software Association and NDP Group, the video gaming industry reached a record $43.4 billion in revenue in 2018.
