Jenny from the Block singer Jennifer Lopez certainly has the rocks to invest in esports as she becomes part of a $15 million funding deal for NRG esports alongside sports icons Marshawn Lynch, Alex Rodriguez, Michael Strahan, and others. According to a report by ESPN, the Series B financing round also attracted a lot of Bay Area investors including Twitter Chief Operating Officer, Anthony Noto, and Sacramento Republic owner Kevin Nagle.
NRG, which was founded in 2015 as a League of Legends team, has previously received funds from sports legend Shaquille O’Neal and Philadelphia Phillies’ Jimmy Rollins. At present, the organization has teams in Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, Smite, Hearthstone, For Honor, and Rocket League among others.
As esports continues to gain prominence, video game companies express an increased interest in this field. Earlier this month, Blizzard Entertainment announced that it was opening its own esports arena in Los Angeles, followed by a statement from Square Enix last week in which the house of Final Fantasy revealed that it has a “great deal of interest” in esports. “Once the size of gaming spectatorship grows, gaming itself will gain value as a form of media,” said the company that wants to “proactively” work to turn esports and video game streaming into an “actual business.”
[Source: ESPN]
