The Sports Entrepreneurs Podcast by Marcus Luer Michael Broda, "From Eastern Europe to Esports"
Michael Broda originally from Cologne, Germany (my hometown) is now building an Esports Group from Prague, Czech Republic. Insiders know that Eastern Europe is a hot bed for start-ups with smart tech entrepreneurs in the region. Michael plays both across his native German-speaking markets and Eastern Europe and is now looking to conquer the world with ESPL, a new gaming platform for the casual gamer. Lots of great insights into the Esports ecosystem and tech side of the business. Enjoy.
Key Highlights
- Michael’s early days being a Banker in Commerzbank Cologne, at that time it was cool to be a banker
- Moving from Cologne to Prague (Czech Republic), back to his parents’ roots in a CFO role for a strong midsize company (EURO 400 mil turnover) in his mid-late 20s
- Start of Delta Capital, 15-20 investments, using his own money. Started with turn-around of distressed companies and then start-ups. Combining old and new economy.
- Starting his first investments in Esports and Gaming - esports.com – portal about Esports news and info
- Sold esports.com to Pro7/SAT 1 Media group
- Founded Esports Investment Group (EIG) - several early stage investments
- Focus on digital infrastructure, data, monetization and traffic – focus on growth of Esports industry beyond the US$ 1 billion
- Vibadou – German social media platform – all about creating authentic content, started with Pro-Football teams, future Esports teams
- Esportido – white label club and athletes app for unique fan and sponsor engagement
- Fantasy.ai – data scientist looking at new solutions for Esports community, from matchmaking to AI solutions
- Gaming to Esports, closed data to open data, knowing who is in front of the screen and then provide the best products for them
- Eastern European IT startup ecosystem vs Silicon Valley, price advantage and high quality, networking is key
- ESPL.gg – Esports Players League – from bedroom warrior to Pro-player
- TwoG Nation (another one of his investments) helped ESPL to start its tech engine.
- Singapore and Kuala Lumpur (KL) connection via his partners in ESPL
- Structure of Esports Ecosystem from top-level tournaments by Publishers to amateur events on 3rd party platforms – building a career path from amateur to pro-player
- Mobile Esports focus – initial focus on South East Asia (SEA) because of strong mobile first and some markets even mobile only markets
- Expanding globally, 12 markets now, Mexico, India, etc, currently about 100k registered users – target 1 million next year
- Free for now, future Freemium model – special content, coaching, etc
- Franchise Model. ESPL provides the backend system, local team runs the local marketing and brings the customers
- Last thoughts on Esports and the growth in future
About
Michael Broda is a German serial entrepreneur and former investment banker. He studied both, banking and finance, MBA and strategic management, MSc. He started his career in 1998 in Commerzbank Cologne and moved into the investment banking focusing on financial markets and financial derivatives.
In 2002 he moved into his first top management position, becoming CFO of CE Wood, a medium sized cee wood processing company with USD 300 mil revenues and 5000 employees in the Czech Republic.
In 2006 he started his own venture and founded Delta Capital, an investment holding which invested into distressed assets, later also startups. Under the roof of Delta Capital he founded several companies, and acquired and sold more than 15 companies.
In 2016 he made his first investments in the sports industry starting with Fantasy sports and later esports.com. He was fascinated by the esports industry and took over esports.com as CEO, 2 years later the company was sold to Pro7/Sat1 Media Group, one of the biggest media houses in Europe.
For the past 4 years he is very focused on the business of Esports, especially in the area of AI, infrastructure and new solutions in this space. Michael is currently leading ESPL as Founder and CEO.
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