We were just the athletics model, which is great. And all the different spaces we can sell, for example, might have an esports athlete, but then if theyre very much into fitness or fashion, you can bridge other areas of similar culture more naturally than if they were off on their own or just through gaming. And what do you think that business should look like? Plus, an exciting collaboration among Under 30s. It can be hard, personally, knowing the elephant in the room is there are many spaces in business globally that we participate in, that me as an individual might not usually be able to participate in by my race or my gender, especially, and that is hard to navigate. Were partnering with universities to build out their esports programming, curriculum, facilities, whatever it is. So we think of the fans and the community quite a bit. And we like to celebrate that because, at the end of the day, these are the best athletes. Some are like, Hey, I used to be a pro Actually, I can give a good example; we have this one player, Ricki Ortiz, she used to be one of the best Street Fighter players in the world and now shes a content creator. Youre deciding to make that investment, do you think youre going to get a 10x return on that investment just from playing the game? The NFL is not doing that, rIght? Was that an avenue of expansion for you? Bloomberg Surveillance: Early Edition with Anna Edwards, Matt Miller & Kailey Leinz live from London, Berlin and New York, bringing insight on global markets and the top business stories of the day. I mean, Ive watched a League of Legends match and Ive played this game five times and I have no idea whats going on, right? What are the primary metrics you look at for decisions? And so that also breeds a negative culture by people who come in and say, Well, like attracts like. And so weve pushed a lot there to ensure we bring in many different people from many different backgrounds to support and bring true optics of who is a gamer and whos in the gaming space. Sometimes. Right. So we took this super seriously, it, again, is a cost investment that Im lucky that I have investors to financially support, because I do believe that is needed for us to continue to do well in the long term, even if theres a short-term financial implication. How do you manage that? However, there are times where weve made big bets on teams, like actually entering into a title and doing things a different way. #EVILEXHIBITED https://t.co/3RMEoUcqGQ. That even if youd gone and brokered your own deals, that company would get a cut. EG used to be the best team in the world for Halo. The two will pull back the curtain on how esports organizations are run at the professional level and how fans and brands can get involved in the truly global phenomenon. So on behalf of the "shitty new" LCS team. Its a spectacle. I was from this private equity firm, Im a woman, and Im a person of color. Im always thinking of downside risk and managing upside potential. FaZe Clan is probably a good example because in the bimodal spectrum of how the esports teams operate, theyre full-on entertainment. Evil Geniuses has a stronger digital and social media presence, reaching around 70 million people each month, she said. So each developer is assessing this and navigating in their own way per se, but it definitely is not something to be underlooked. Jokes on me, I was told about two weeks before the investment closed, converting to more of an acquisition, I should be rolling in to help kind of spearhead the business and really figure out the space of esports, as it had not been well figured out, especially when I had entered two years ago. [9][10] The organization also doubled their staff count and opened new offices in Seattle and Los Angeles within a year of LaPointe Jameson's tenure. And so cost is the first big framework we look at. Nicole LaPointe Jameson, CEO, EVIL GENIUSES. Knowing what titles are sticky, what developers have good relations. Did you feel like an outsider coming into the role? She has also stabilized a company. When I had enough wins under my belt, I focused on my own investments under PEAK6, which revolved around gaming, AR, VR, and tech. Especially, because entering an esports title is not cheap, both from labor, from straight dollars, from infrastructure. Evil Geniuses, a more than 20-year-old company, helped to shape the esports industry, she said. Agenda At A Glance Schedule Speakers The GSV Cup Elite 200 GSV EDTECH 150 Sponsors Bookstore ASU+GSV NFT Register. Prize pool is not a driver for revenue. @Pimp_CSGO Come to Seattle, meet the EG army (& Valve ), RT @AndyyyBarton: 7-2 to end the first round robin! You make a lot of money owning the Lakers, maybe you sell concessions, you sell tickets, you have all these ancillary things around the Lakers. And so theres quite a bit of variation in their interests and their passions. But esports, being a digital platform, also bridges entertainment, so you think of content creators, digital influencers, and all of those revenue models and revenue streams. And thats our biggest revenue stream. For veterans of the space, theres a well-deserved chip on their shoulders, and I came in as a triple whammy, right? And so its not easy, but its exciting. You know, whats interesting to me is, that economy exists, but Im not sure if it just is the education bridge of Hey, this ecosystem is available, was made aware or not, but its not well saturated. That seems like a relationship that needs to be managed very closely. And so theres often competing universes under one big broad bucket of esports, [which] yields very different results on the back-end infrastructure and supporting businesses. Esports Insidersat down with Nicole LaPointe Jameson, CEO of Evil Geniuses, to discuss the need to change the logo, as well as learnings that have been implemented into this "final phase" of the organisation's rebrand. "The CEO of EG is a woman,. I dont think anyones done it perfectly yet. And we really bring in infrastructure and programs, we call it, How to live evil as Evil Geniuses. Some of them are like, I really love this game. They werent sure what to do, and we could keep going. But if I create an unsafe work environment for myself or others, it defeats the whole purpose of trying to grow and expand and bring a positive outlook to the gaming industry. For this weeks episode of Decoder, I spoke with Nicole LaPointe Jameson, CEO of esports company Evil Geniuses, to figure out how an esports team makes money, where the industry is headed, and where she sees growth. And they have an investment portfolio thats low-touch but then, they have a full-on operational acquisition investment portfolio as well. All of our athletes are full-time employees with health benefits and 401(k) match which again, hopefully, doesnt sound insightful to people on the call, but was a first for many people in the esports industry. Esports Insider sat down with Nicole LaPointe Jameson, CEO of Evil Geniuses, to discuss the need to change the logo, as well as learnings that have been implemented into this "final phase" of the organisation's rebrand. Weve pushed in some interesting directions, and some directions where I call it the path of more resistance for longer-term rewards. Or is that just growing slowly alongside? Studio Head - Halo Transmedia and Entertainment, 343 Industries. Because that helps us grow at a mature and sustainable level. Nicole LaPointe Jameson is the CEO of the North American esports organization, Evil Geniuses. and break down barriers that might have existed, into the fold. More at IMDbPro Contact Info: View agent, publicist, legal on IMDbPro. And so you do have lots of law firms now, and agencies, and marketing people. One of the questions I have for all of these digital media and entertainment models and obviously, I work in digital media so I think about this a lot but one of the questions that always comes up is it seems like so rarely is the core product itself the money. And so there is a balance, right? They dont have a board of owners per se, who have invested into the product. #financialplanning #retirement #retirementplanning #investing In a few weeks, Evil Geniuses teams will travel to a tournament in Romania that has a prize pool of $45 million, LaPointe Jameson said. People are like, Wow, esports teams must be so rich with that prize pool. That mostly goes to players or back to the league. You cant be all things to all people. I think that varies by the player, right? Nicole LaPointe Jameson (born April 11, 1994)[1] is an American businesswoman currently serving as the CEO of esports organization Evil Geniuses. Tatiana Flowers was formerly a reporter and fellow with Hearst Connecticut Media Group. So bear with me if youre an esports expert, but taking a step back. So its very much an industry in formation still. Nicole LaPointe Jameson. And that also resonates with partners. (Podcast), Chief Executive Officer, Peak6 Investments LP. And so again, trying to be thoughtful of how we navigate what we participate in, and why, is important. Being a game developer is a huge struggle, very expensive, crazy amount of labor, very hard to keep up. In her spare time, she enjoys skiing, yoga, Zumba and live music events. You can find a collection of my speaking engagements, media moments, a way to connect with me on shared passions, topics, and more! We're not a website. But if they suck at the game, thats not interesting to me at all. Because we dont like to do things just for the optics of it. Okay, so you own the Lakers. We realized we could white-label those tools and sell them direct. @omgitspotter is the first female coach to win an international #VCT series. Amidst her two-and-half year tenure as CEO of Evil Geniuses, Jameson has earned an array of accolades, including being featured in Forbes' 30 Under 30 list in 2020 and listed in Adweek's 2021 Most Powerful Women in Sports. #EGWIN #LCS, RT @EvilGeniuses: Come celebrate our soon to be 3-0 week with a meet and greet at the #LCS Lunar Revel Celebration afterparty! Whats the word Im looking for? Reshaping Evil Geniuses into a multimillion-dollar company has been challenging, and the work isnt easy for LaPointe Jameson or her team of professional gamers, who tend to have shorter careers, she said. So what had not just resulted from that in the removal was, we do social media audits and deeper background checks with all of our hires, not just staff, but also players. You know, from a total volume point of view its probably direct sponsorships. Our first #valorant international LAN started with a ! And so we did have to remove some players later last year, around similar claims, its a process, right? So [we] dont take those things lightly at all, we take them really seriously. And we built a roster exactly opposite of how every other esports team ever in the world has built a roster. That was definitely one of the scarier elements for me, like, How do I navigate this space? Historically, gaming has been very cliquey. Shes being very careful. I was able to somehow convince a bunch of people who had never worked in esports and did sales, both sell- and buy-side, and traditional sports, and consumer product goods to come join this clunky esports team and sell it, and theyve done fantastically. Its people making videos. So we can do both, we can still geo-affiliate, but we can go broader. LaPointe Jameson praised what she called a stellar education system in her hometown, where she attended Hamilton Avenue Elementary School, Western Middle School and Greenwich High School. And building a playbook of how even my team members at EG can operate, understanding, okay, what lanes do we play in and what lanes do we not? But that also fuels our purpose and at EG (Evil Geniuses). Im looking forward to the soft-focus human interest package before your Like they do at the Olympics. So in some franchise leagues we have regulations we follow, and some leagues where theres no regulation. And were an North American team, even though we have global competitions, but the more eastward you go, the more Wild West it becomes in that infrastructure. Thats the thesis we believe in. Lets try this. Its a self-perpetual feedback loop of how things are, not how things ought to be. We all compete under one banner. Is that an issue that youve had to deal with, with your talent? The idea that there were single-gender teams to begin with has always struck me as very odd. For better or for worse, as anyone in my team would tell you, I dont come from a gaming background. How do you think about your relationship to the game publishers? Because for me, again, I go back to pick the content creator, pick the pure athlete, I always want the best athlete, but the data shows the best athletes arent just the ones you know and have conversations with because they are faces in the space. So when we have to, as we do, have to pivot, change our course, throw something out and go in the complete opposite direction, we have a diligent framework of why we did what we did, so we know how to course-correct when that has to happen 19 times a day. So they have to be of the legal working age, they have to have certain hours, the minimum wage requirements, versus we sometimes compete against Chinese teams; are you 12 or are you 16? And how thats manifested is, of course, the entertainment side of [the] house. 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