Niko Vuori

Dude Perfect raised $100M for global biz expansion. The deal is getting lots of buzz, but our team’s math signals challenges ahead. Let’s break it down… DEAL DETAILS • $100 - 300M growth capital investment • Led by Highmount Capital • Unclear if 100% invested upfront OR draw down of commitment over time • No previous capital raised USE OF FUNDS • Hire mgmt team to expand biz • More live experiences incl int’l tour, consumer products • Grow content formats, frequency, channels, global localization e.g. animation, TV, movies, streaming • Extend brand beyond 5 founders by building talent network • New HQ in Frisco, TX as prod facility and “family-friendly entertainment destination”: – Retail store, podcasts / gaming / fan UGC spaces, trick shot tower, DP museum, mini golf, restaurants – Original plans for 3-story, 30 acre facility est to cost $100M+, 2 yrs to build COMPANY OVERVIEW: Dude Perfect • Digital-native comedy and sports media brand • Faith-based mission: “We’re about giving back, spreading joy and glorifying Jesus Christ”  • Other YouTube franchises: “Stereotypes,” “Overtime”, “Bucket List”  • Media brand also incl books, mobile games, board games and toys, and merch / retail / food and beverage partnerships • 25 current team members PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS • 60M YouTube Followers, 17B views • Est 2024 revenue: $50M per DP • Est 2023 and 2022 revenue: $25M and $20M per WSJ  • Consumer product partnerships incl Nerf toy line, Columbia Sportswear • Partnered with A Parent Media co to launch a streaming service • ESPN “30 for 30” doc premiering at Dallas Int’l film festival • TV series on CMT in 2016, later aired on Nickelodeon • Alternate broadcasts for Amazon’s Thursday Night Football • 4 live nationwide tours as of 2023 ORIGIN STORY • Founded 2009 by 5 friends at Texas A&M • Cofounders = twins Coby Cotton and Cory Cotton, Tyler Toney, Cody Jones, Garrett Hilbert • Started as YT channel featuring trick shot videos INVESTOR OVERVIEW: Highmount Capital • Growth stage and middle mkt PE fund for tech, media, healthcare • Founded in 2023 by jason illian and David Hawkins • 4 team members on website + advisor • 3 team members have faith-based ties per bios • No other investments listed on website other than DP My takeaway... I really like and support the trend of increased investment into YouTubers and digital-native media brands. But as I wrote about in my 2024 State of Creator x Media capital markets reports (will link them below), investment must match market and opportunity size. To ensure good ROI, and to set good precedent for future investment into our space. The DP bet is exciting, but could be overly optimistic based on our prelim math. My colleague Michael Booth's post breaks the math down (link below). More analysis to come in my Friday newsletter. —- I’m the founder of RockWater Industries. We do m&a and strategy advisory for media, agencies, and creator economy. My dm’s are open. #media #agency #creatoreconomy

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TikTok ban is jet fuel for $4B Triller / AGBA reverse merger. But this is financial engineering to salvage 2 struggling companies. Retail investors, be wary! Let’s break it down… TARGET: Triller • “AI-powered” music-focused social video platform • Founded 2015 by Bobby Sarnevesht and Ryan Kavanagh • Owns Bare Knuckle league, Amplify.ai, Julius, Thuzio, FITE • Raised $218M+ and TBD debt • Biz model = rev share, ticket sales / PPV / subs / merch, advertising, platform fees • Rapid US and int'l growth via TikTok bans (e.g. India) • 200 est employees PERFORMANCE • 2.2M creators, 450M+ user accounts • 2023 revenue of $45M, down from $54M in 2022 • Q3 YTD showed $104M loss, $378M in debt / liabilities vs $6M current assets • $1M cash & equivalents CONTROVERSIAL HISTORY • 2022 Sony sued for unauthorized music use • 2023 UMG sued for same reason  • Owes music rightsholders $23.6M in unpaid fees • 2022 called off $5B reverse merger with video ad platform SeaChange • 2022 missed M&A payment to Verzuz owners • Filed for NASDAQ IPO in Aug 2023 and Jan 2024 • Reputation for inflating users and usage TARGET: AGBA • Tech-driven wealth mgmt and financial services • 4 biz lines: Platform, Distribution, Healthcare, Fintech  • Founded 1993 by TBD • Focuses on the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area • Biz model: interest income, commissions, asset mgmt fees • Publicly listed on NASDAQ, holding co registered in BVI, operates in HK  PERFORMANCE • Stock fell 80% 4Q 2022, has traded < $1 since July • $140M market cap, $19M of cash ($17M is restricted), $18M debt • 400k individual and corp customers • 2023 revenue of $54M, up 74% YoY, but a loss of $43M • 176 est employees DEAL DETAILS • All stock deal, AGBA acquiring Triller in reverse merger • New combined AGBA will be 80% owned by current Triller stockholders and RSU holders • Current AGBA shareholders will own 20% of new combined co • Expected May close VALUATION • Triller at $3.2B and AGBA at $800M, for $4B total • …BUT seeking alpha estimates as of 4.23 AM stock price, Triller’s real valuation is $1.3B •….and based on TikTok share repurchase valuation of 17x revenue, implies $765M Triller valuation • As of 4.23 AM stock trading at $2.40, up 500% from $0.40 the day pre announcement DEAL RATIONALE / SYNERGY • Leverage Triller’s large social audience to drive traffic to AGBA’s financial services and create more engagement via live events, webinars, etc  • Create personalized AGBA financial services via Triller user analytics and insights • But IMO here’s the real angle… • “access public capital markets and secure the liquidity needed for rapid growth” – aka a cash grab from retail investors • Triller is being aggressive when competitor TikTok faces US regulatory challenges (senate vote is today, Tuesday!) More analysis to come in my Friday newsletter! --- I’m the founder of RockWater Industries. We do m&a and strategy advisory for #media #agency #creatoreconomy. DMs are open.

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20 hours in and Hoyo's formidable craftsmanship is on full display with ZZZ. ⭐1.0 release pool of 16 characters. Hoyo games have always prioritized quality over quantity, leaning instead on deep systems to enable diverse team comps / fun theorycrafting. Interestingly, Wuthering Waves also launched with the same # of characters in its 1.0 pool. I'm personally a big fan of this approach, and hope to see more games adopt it going forward. ⭐Female to male character ratio of 3:1. HSR currently stands at ~2:1 and Genshin at ~1.7:1. Every faction shown so far has only 1 male char. Surprising given Hoyo's recent titles have focused more on the "mainstream anime" audience instead of catering only to the core otaku audience. Very happy to see Hoyo honoring its roots here. They cooked and core fans are going to be very pleased with all of the fanservice (e.g. cinema artwork, main menu char selection, etc.). ⭐C6 / Cinema artwork is... IYKYK. They clearly tested it with HSR and are fully leaning into it with ZZZ. Congrats to all you Grace C6 havers. They knew exactly what they were doing. ⭐First Hoyo game with dedicated furries / anthropomorphic races. Ellen, Ben, and Von Lycaon are all very compelling characters. Wakayama Shion does such a fantastic job as Ellen's VA. Hoyo absolutely nailed the launch banner here. ⭐Just like other Hoyo games, ZZZ is more "casual" than it is "core." It doesn't demand much of your time as a single player live service title. For me it's the perfect side game that I can see myself spending 1-2 hours per week on. I don't expect everyone to like it (might be too "easy" for core gamers), but it's a winning formula that Hoyo has perfected for its target audience. ⭐One of Hoyo's underrated special talents is making "core" genres widely accessible from a gameplay standpoint across all platforms. ZZZ plays flawlessly on mobile, PC, and console without diluting the experience at all. Everything from the simplified switching system to the flat level design was intentional to make it incredibly accessible even for someone who has never played action games before. This is something really only Hoyo is capable of pulling off with such finesse. ⭐Really digging the comic / manga style storytelling. Glad to see Hoyo continue to innovate on how it delivers its stories and really looking forward to seeing more of this. ⭐Hoyo's investments into its music / animation departments are really paying off. The release trailer for ZZZ is Hoyo's best yet and their character drip marketing is perfected to the point where I'm basically forced to pull on every banner. In many ways, Hoyo is slowly becoming the Apple of the gaming industry, and their IPs are rapidly expanding the audience for gacha and anime on a global scale. I'm honestly humbled. Shut up and take my money... #zenlesszonezero

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🌟 Genchi Genbutsu 🌟 "Go look - Go see" On other words - Get out there, see, and learn how things work! In the fast-paced world of sports, where every game counts and each fan's experience matters, ticketing isn't just a transaction—it's a gateway to unforgettable moments. However to get to these moments there are several important jobs to be done. These jobs are often performed in the ticketing office! Meeting with EFL clubs as well as the heroes of ticketing gives us invaluable insights into unique challenges and aspirations. My trip to UK yesterday was no exception. By sitting down with key people in the club I met yesterday I got deeper insights into their daily lives and what jobs they need to done to perform in a fast pace environment. The positive and engaging conversations go beyond business; they allow us to step into their shoes and truly empathize with goals. I am grateful for all these learnings and it is also a true pleasure experience this together with great colleagues like David Kenny and Alex Eagle Here's to continuous learning and innovation, so that we can continue to build the strongest and most helpful ticketing platform sports have seen and that gets the job done. This way the heroes of ticketing can make every game day a seamless and memorable experience! 🏟️⚽🏀🏈 #CustomerFirst #EmpathyInAction #SportsTicketing #CustomerExperience #TeamWork #FanExperience #TicketCo

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Investment news: Bitmagic funded for 3,7M€ by Korea Investment Partners, Supercell, Sisu Game Ventures… and me (and a good team of other discerning investors) It’s a very cool case. Vehicle games with shooter stuff and drones etc are way cool on this. I’m sure we will see all sorts of crazy blended mongler games: like 3D chess with tanks, aircraft carrier sized space sharks with freaking lasers on their heads. Etc. Future of gaming genres like Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite etc “creator games” look incredibly bright with Bitmagic. https://lnkd.in/dKdR7XR9

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Recap of Consensus 2024: why does this event exist? TLDR Thx for the BBQ, Austin! And it was great to meet up with old and new friends including EJ Ayala, Michael Dershewitz, Max Kaufman ⚡️, Erica Hamilton, Ron Cao, Colleen Sullivan, Alex M., Paul Thind, Dante Reminick, Parker Heath, Kiernan Fitzsimons, Conrad Sain, George V., Rodrigo Etcheto, Kelly DiGregorio, and more! In all it was a great time meeting with incredible partners. It's clear that: - Cloud compute and distributed hosting x web3 gaming has a lot of potential - Gaming-focused chains are ready to rock and roll, esp. powered by Sequence - Investments are increasingly sophisticated and focused on sustainability - Traditional gaming is headed into the space in droves, with strong teams with incredible backgrounds who truly understand gamers, data, A/B testing and more But Consensus, as with many generalist crypto or web3 events, is obsolete. Events in new industries are important, but as the space matures and consolidates, I'm not sure that there's a need for several days devoted to basic underlying technology. It's like going to Servers 2024! We all get it, we know what servers are, what they do. How this gets applied, what benefits it brings to developers, players, users, that's what matters. I'd love to see Consensus get a bit more serious around specific tracks or reconsider its focus.

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PSA for CEOs: It’s your job to understand what potential acquirers want. Even if you’re not looking to sell yet. This idea was top of mind for me during GDC, where I met with several bigger studios. I took every opportunity to ask how they think about acquisitions: - What makes a potential acquisition interesting to them? - What thresholds do studios have to meet? - What metrics do they value most? This type of forward-looking market exploration is a shift for me. My primary focus for the last four years has been building FunCraft into a successful business. But my role needs to evolve. While FunCraft is growing and thriving independently, it’s still my responsibility to gauge what could make us an attractive acquisition down the road and understand how we build toward it. My advice to other CEOs: If an acquisition is something you can envision for your company down the road, don't plan for it in a silo. Talk extensively with potential acquirers and let their input inform your strategy early on.

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Yesterday, my team at Vareto announced the first-ever multiplayer modeling platform for Finance. 😍 Now that I can finally speak publicly about what we've been working on, the first thing I want to share is a screenshot from a live multiplayer session we did internally at the company. One of the interesting things about building enterprise software as a startup is that we're still too small to *need* our own product. So instead of doing what our customers do--expense budgeting, headcount planning, etc.--we use Vareto's multiplayer modeling to forecast fun things like total pet spend. Yep, that's right. We had 40 people go into a Vareto model and enter in bottom-up inputs for how much they expect to spend on their cats and dogs this year. 😂 While this isn't very useful--especially since many people entered in clearly exaggerated numbers--sessions like this helped prove that our new 2.0 platform can handle even "extreme" usage situations. (In reality, even if some enterprise customers have thousands of users in Vareto, only a handful are ever likely to be in the same model page at the same exact time given granular data permissions.) You can see more useful, realistic ways that finance and business teams can use Vareto multiplayer here: https://lnkd.in/gV9gqKwz

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Dave & Buster’s Introduces Betting on Arcade Games to Customers - Dave & Buster's will permit customers to place bets on arcade games, reinventing the company's entertainment offering. - This move aims to generate a unique, adult-centered gaming experience, enhancing patron engagement and expanding revenue streams. - Decision comes after regulatory clearance and highlights how businesses adapt to meet evolving customer preferences and market trends. - The initiative represents a blend of gaming and gambling industries and may inspire similar adaptations across industry. #DaveandBusters #ArcadeBetting #EntertainmentInnovation - Read more: [https://buff.ly/3Uk0UbJ]

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🔥 My fireside chat with the legendary Nolan Bushnell from TechCon SoCal is out! (Thank you TechCon Team, for sharing) . Early-stage entrepreneurs, especially those navigating the AI transformation age, you won't want to miss this! Nolan's journey from founding Atari to pioneering the tech industry is not just history, it's a living testament to the power of vision and innovation that can guide us in the present: ✨ "Entrepreneurship is about envisioning a world that could be, and trying to make it happen." Nolan's story is a testament to the power of vision. From transforming TV sets into interactive home entertainment with Pong to creating a $400 billion gaming industry, his innovative mindset has paved the way for countless technological advancements. 🌍 Nolan's early family upbringing and education planted the seed of innovation and creativity, leading to groundbreaking creations like the first car navigation system, video phones, and early online shopping platforms. His story shows how crucial it is to nurture creativity from a young age and stay curious. 🔍 "Entrepreneurship is about making the future happen faster. If you want to live it in the future, create it." This mindset is essential for today's entrepreneurs, especially in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. 💡 During our chat, Nolan also shared profound insights on the importance of adaptability and resilience. His advice on having multiple ideas and timing them right to curate a successful company is not just theoretical, it's a practical strategy that can guide any entrepreneur: 🧠 One standout moment was Nolan's perspective on company culture: "I don't care how you come to work, what you wear, I don't care if you come to work, I don't care when you come to work, if you get the job done, I'm happy." This ethos of prioritizing outcomes over processes is a key driver of Silicon Valley's success and a valuable lesson for any startup looking to innovate and grow. 🌐 As we navigate the AI transformation age, Nolan's advice on embracing societal changes and staying ahead of the curve is more relevant than ever. He urged current AI founders to be aware of the potential job displacement AI may cause and to see the immense opportunities it brings. "You look for things that are broken. There's a lot of things in the world right now that are broken, and education's one of them." 🎥 Watch the full video to dive deeper into Nolan Bushnell's incredible journey and gain insights to help you shape the future. This conversation is a goldmine of inspiration and practical advice for any early-stage entrepreneur. (Special Thanks for making this fireside chat possible: Faisal Mushtaq, Alex Altomare) #TechConSoCal #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #NolanBushnell #AI #Startups #FutureTech #Inspiration #SanDiego https://lnkd.in/grVQKv8R

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Stop over promising and under delivering. Under promise and over deliver. Manage expectations, follow through with what you say, and you will find success every single time. #career #careeradvice #advice #entertainmentindustry #tech #losangeles

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🚀Free NFT update 🚀 Are you really part of the #web3 avant-garde if you don't own at least one podcast NFT? Over on Farcaster, Lens and Zora, far from the web2 brands who still think it's 2022, NFTS are once again about art. Writing, music, film... podcasts. It's experimental, but it's working. Thousands of Podcast NFTs for shows such as UFO, Mint, Coop, Unchained, and Rehash are being minted daily. Is it going to bring down the walls of Spotify? No. Of course it isn't. It's never been a zero sum game; it's not about destroying the gatekeepers and tearing down the ivory towers. NFTs give you a choice. - Ownership - Distribution - Curation - Community If you want to experience how easy the process is, mint the latest episode of Thinking on Paper with Heale CEO Todd Haselhorst right here - https://lnkd.in/eBPrSzVn And you can get the answer to two blockchain solutions with one stone. Mint an NFT podcast, and learn how blockchain technology is revolutionizing logistics to be cheaper, faster, and smarter. #nfts #logistics #podcasts

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Wonder will happen to human creativity & media industries with the rise of web3 & AI? 👇🏼 Tonight at 530p we have another Emerging LA happy hour in Santa Monica. There are 99 guests are signed up, and only 11 slots left! SIGN UP HERE: https://lnkd.in/gcR8dKHY This happy hour will be part of our 'Future Frontiers' series, with a panel discussion on the latest developments in emerging technologies and how it will impact the creative industries. These trends matter as it relates to content generation, creators, IP, royalties & rights, and ownership. Emerging tech such as crypto & generative AI is already bringing disruptive innovation to media, and that is why everyone in Hollywood is keeping a close eye on it! The speakers for our panel discussion are leaders at top firms, funds & startups in this field and come from Xsolla , Hashed , Spaceport.xyz , and Republic Crypto. Come listen to them speak and bring your questions for our AMA with the audience! Thanks in advance to our panelists:​​​ • Michael Dershewitz ​(COO/Head of Corp Dev at Xsolla) • Jun Park (Sr. Investor at Hashed) • Le Zhang (Founder/CEO at Spaceport) • Maria Chak (Head of BD at Republic Crypto) These are areas that we pay close attention to at Sunset Ventures, and it can be tough to keep up with the latest developments. So I am excited to learn from this group discussion! A big shout-out to my co-host for the evening Timothy K. as we represent Wharton Digital Assets Club in SoCal and the support from the Lightspeed Faction VC + Orange DAO + AI LA teams!! 🙏🏼 The mission of these events always remains the same, we want you to 1. Deepen connections with good people in LA tech community 2. Learn actionable insights as a builder or investor 3. Leave more inspired than you arrived as you continue your journey -- Hurry and sign up now if you would like to come. If you know someone in your network would find this community & discussion useful... Then please repost & tag! ♻️

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If you’re a founder building at the intersection of Games & AI, or just interested in what’s happening at the bleeding edge of the future in Silicon Valley, the new episode of /all chat is worth a listen.👇 Link in comments below. Hot takes from Patron portfolio founders Rick Ling of Rascal Games and Nico Christie of Altera with my partners Brian Cho and Jason Yeh! #games #ai #founders #seedfunding #startups

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At Apple’s WWDC, the company announced that AVPlayer now supports the Common Media Client Data (CMCD) standard, allowing CDNs to do Quality of Service (QoS) monitoring and delivery optimization. While the standard allows three different modes for transmitting the data, AVPlayer uses only the preferred mode - as HTTP request headers. AVPlayer implements most of the keys. The keys content ID ('cid'), requested maximum throughput ('rtp'), and top bitrate ('tb') are not supported. One extension is included. The streaming format key ('sf') will return the value 'lh' for a LL-HLS stream rather than 'h' (HLS). Developer document: https://lnkd.in/e3EshBgF Hat tip to Edgio, the first I saw to point out the news. 

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Incredibly useful PC game market data from Steam. Steam continues to be the largest PC game platform by MAUs, by revenue, and by titles. Nothing comes close to it. ----- GameWorldObserver: "Steam business update: Sustained revenue growth, top 5 languages (non-EFIGS), expansion into Asia and South America. Valve’s Kassidy Gerber recently shared several updates on Steam as a platform and some of its key metrics. Here are the key findings." (Evgeny Obedkov) (Jun 11, 2024) Data below is taken from Gerber’s talk at the Nordic Game 2024 conference (ty GameDiscoverCo). --Steam has experienced tremendous growth in user base over the last five years, especially in regions such as Asia, Southeast Asia, Central America, and South America. --For example, the number of new Steam users in China, Serbia, and Philippines has increased by more than 100% since 2019, with Japan, India, and Mexico up more than 150%. --“Part of our mission on Steam is to reach gamers around the world,” Gerber said. “We invest a lot in making sure we price in the right currencies, accept the right payment methods, and connect our servers close to our customers.” --Steam currently supports 29 languages, and Valve is working on supporting more. And the actual language breakdown on the platform still surprises a lot of game devs. --“Traditionally, a lot of developers in the West tended to focus on EFIGS (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish). But it would be a big mistake to ship a game on Steam in 2024 and not at least consider a Simplified Chinese,” Gerber explained. --The slide below shows that the top five languages on Steam are English (35.08%), Simplified Chinese (28.08%), Russian (7.91%), Castilian Spanish (5.25%), and German (3.41%). --Like many other game platforms, Steam saw a huge surge in revenue at the start of the pandemic and lockdowns in 2020. However, it is “still seeing sustained growth,” with the graph below showing that global revenue for Valve’s platforms hasn’t slowed since then. --As GameDiscoverCo rightly pointed out, the key is likely Steam’s global expansion. Valve is doing a great job of reaching new audiences in Asia and other regions to offset the overall games market slowdown. --Steam hosts four seasonal sales every year, and Gerber pointed out that each of them continues to grow year-over-year. --For example, average daily revenue for the Summer Sale 2023 grew 23% year-over-year. Autumn and Winter events, which remain the biggest, are also growing — up 17% and 13% respectively. --“It’s worth noting that this growth isn’t localized to just the biggest games on Steam,” Gerber noted. “Games of all sizes see significant sales upticks by participating in our seasonal sales.” For more information about Steam, including data on Next Fest, Steam Deck, and Steam Input (6.7 million daily active controller users, +19.2% YoY), watch the full talk below." GameWorldObserver: https://lnkd.in/gegwxA9M #gameindustry #valve #steam #pcgames #cloudplatform

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Consumer founders in SF come check out our event next week and register below

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This is another amazing product from the Kraken Digital Asset Exchange team! The Kraken Wallet (like any other hashtag #Web3 wallet from MetaMask, MetaMask Institutional, Ledger Enterprise, Coinbase wallet, etc.) allows you to connect your self-custody assets to the BOSONIC Network through our Smart Vault where you can trade with any liquidity source, including fiat custodians. Additionally it allows you to borrow or lend assets without moving them which results in less Layer-1 fees and reduces risk. All transactions are provable and recorded on Layer-2 ledgers. Smart Vault also complies with AML/KYC rules. #digitalassets #otc #eth #ethereum #btcusd #usdc #usdt #cryptotrading Christophe M.

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🔋⚡️Calling all gaming & entertainment website owners! Big news at Overwolf today as we announce the acquisition of industry-leading gaming ad tech company Nitro (formally Nitropay), bringing unprecedented net-7 payouts to all website publishers on our platform. As part of our aligned vision with the Nitro team to revolutionize the ad tech industry, we’re offering website publishers unparalleled opportunities for monetization including: 🏆Net-7 payouts ⚡️Lightning fast ad loading ☎️Same-day support 📈More demand for ad inventory Prior to the acquisition, Overwolf was already ranked by Comscore, Inc. as a Top 10 US Game Publisher, with our unique proprietary solution allowing advertisers to reach over 45 million monthly gamers across premium game titles like Minecraft, Fortnite and League of Legends. Our partners include global powerhouse brands and media agencies such as P&G, Pringles, KFC, Intel, Monster Energy, Dentsu, WPP, Havas and more. Today, we more than double our reach to 100M unique gamers monthly across a rich ecosystem of desktop apps, mods, private servers and now over 500 premium websites - becoming a simple marketing buy for anyone looking to advertise to gamers at scale. A big welcome to Cody Bye and the Nitro team joining our growing pack of wolves. Read more about the acquisition here: https://lnkd.in/dRs_MzKN If you’re a gaming/entertainment website owner interested in net-7 payouts and increased demand for your ad inventory reach out to our Nitro team via the website: https://lnkd.in/dAxtkU5V #Publishers | #GamingIndustry | #GamingAds | #Monetization | #AdTech

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