International esports organization Team Liquid raised $35 million in a new funding round led by Ares Management. Team Liquid was founded more than 20 years ago as a video game news website. Now, it is one of the leading esports teams, with a roster of more than 120 athletes who compete across 19 different games. Claire Hungate, President and COO of Team Liquid, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.

Closing Bell

International Esports Organization Team Liquid Raises $35 Million Amid Esports Funding Wave

International E Sports Organization. Team liquid raising 35 million in a new round. Led by Aries management Team liquid was founded more than 20 years ago as a video game news website. And now it's one of the leading e sports teams with more than 100 and 20 athletes on its roster that compete across 19 different games. Well, joining me now is the president and Ceo of team liquid claire, honey Claire, thanks so much for coming on the show. Congratulations. And for those who might not be familiar with the world of esports, Tell me about what team liquid does. Sure. Hi Kristen, thanks so much for having me on. Well, esports is a digitally native industry, but it's competitive multiplayer video gaming. So professional players playing against each other in front of huge audiences either online or in real life in huge stadiums. Recently raising $35 million dollars clear. Congratulations. How are you gonna use that money to grow? Um well, you know, as as you said, it is growth capital for us, you know, we're a company that's 22 years old playing in 19 different games. We have headquarters in three continents of the world. So brazil North America and in the Netherlands in europe. So, you know, for us, first and foremost, we're a competitive esports team. So athletics comes first. So we're always investing in our athletics technology data around athletic athletics, making us better competitors. But we're also a fandom brand. So we're we're investing heavily in our audience, growing our audience, growing the depth of our fandom. So we have a some technology bespoke technology called liquid plus which is fan engagement technology, so will be further developing that more innovation in the Web three space international expansion, brazil will get bigger for us, it will become a bigger investment um and also you know, a couple of businesses potentially in the acquisition space, but also in the build space for us looking to move more into that general gaming space and get some of that, you know, I think it's what is it, 100 and 40 billion dollars the general gaming industry is worth and E sports is just just a slice of that at the moment Huge market. So you work with more than 120 athletes on your roster and we always hear claire especially for these sports teams and gaming I assume included that there's so much data on each player to determine their maximum potential. How are they progressing and reaching that potential? How do they contribute to the team? What are some of the data and analytics that you keep on your 120 players to make sure that the roster and the team is strong. We just opened a Alienware pro lab actually one in our Netherlands headquarters, one in our US headquarters where we'll be testing and training players, testing them constantly, keeping those results, testing them. Again we use S A. P who are a big partner for us, particularly with our League of Legends team, we take data from our liquid plus platform through the very powerful crm there. So we're collecting all kinds of data. We have analysts for all our, all our teams and in terms of new player acquisitions, any players on the horizon that you're looking to? Um we're pretty fully booked up for players at the moment. It's competitive season. So we're competing, we're competing in two majors this weekend. Dota two and counter strike. So yeah, we're in full competition mode at the moment. Big name backers like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. How did you get them on board? Claire to invest in your company? They came alongside some of our original investors. So Peter Guber and Ted leonsis um, alongside axiomatic who are original founders um and sorry, funders and obviously we've recently taken funding from areas and led around and then Revolution and Heroes. So all great backers, fantastic supporters, strategic investments from there. All right, Claire, hon Gate president and C. 00. At team liquid Claire. Thanks so much for coming on this show. And congratulations