Company description
MYeGamer allows competitive gamers to play one another online for cash.
We’re organizing and incentivizing the behavior of people already spending time doing what they love.
Team
Company Background
Founded: 2007
Headquarters: San Francisco
Milestones:
January 2007 - MYeGamer.com registered.
2007-2010 - MYeGamer hosts events for MEGALAN, Gaming For Charity and the Central Gaming League.
February 2010 - MYeGamer wins Vator Splash competition for startup companies.
June 2010 - MYeGamer strategically partners with angel investor Douglas Zhang.
July 2010 - Phase 1 Development begins.
Funding
Past funding: Self-funded
Current round sought: Seed Funding
Committed funds if any: $100,000
Seeking: 2-3 Million
Andrew Littlewood, founded MYeGamer in 2007 and has seen the company grow from 2 friends in a basement to team that are very passionate about gaming. Andrew enjoyed playing Counter-strike competitively and has recently retired to focus on MYeGamer. In the past he has led many teams and competed in online leagues for cash prizes. He is successful in running local tournaments for charities the past 3 years. Gaming For Charity has raised thousands for local charities.
Jordan Trabue, cofounder of MYeGamer, has been playing Counter-strike Source competitively and has been sponsored many times. Jordan has been playing video games competitively for the past 8 years. His league experience includes the CPL (Cyber-athlete Professional League), and the CGS (Championship Gaming Series). He has extensive experience as a professional gamer. He has firsthand knowledge of what gamers want, and has extensive contacts in the gaming community.
Leland Jones has been gaming for 13 years in all. He has been playing Halo for 7 years and still plays professionally. Leland also founded the Central Gaming League which he has hosted for the past 5 years for Halo Gamers. He has teamed with some of the greatest halo players in the world (T2, Neighbor, Ghostyame, Cpt Anarchy, Shockwave, TuLegit, Naded) and is now playing for Active Rush, a professional team for MLG. Leland has gaming structure expertise that is invaluable to our gaming website technology.
Doug Zhang is an IT consultant with extensive experience in UI design, web programming and software architecture. He has been a consultant in the healthcare information technology field for more than ten years. He is also a principle in two startups: Cogomed and Coporta. These projects rely readily on Doug's knowledge and experience in IT consulting, UI and software design. Douglas Zhang is also a web developer with an emphasis on web applications that consolidate and aggregate disparate users and user systems. Doug is a graduate of University of Texas with a BA in physics and psychology.
Bart Vickers, Director of Technology Services at Intouch Solutions and Community, Social Media, & Technology Strategist at VML. Bart helps clients develop and execute strategies involving digital communities, social networking sites, user-generated content, blogs, wikis, etc. This includes governance and staffing recommendations (content moderation, community manager, community director, etc.), as well as integration into broader digital and traditional marketing efforts. Bart's extensive experience in marketing and social media will launch MYeGamer into the forefront of the online gaming scene.
Business model
Credits and Tournaments
Any gamer on our site can purchase MYeGamer credits to enter competitive events to gain cash prizes and EGO points. MYeGamer will earn a percentage of all tournament and event prizes and entry fees. We expect to host 10 to 20,000 events/tournaments at any given time. Each event/tournament will average $20 for a typical prize pool. MYeGamer will deduct a 15% charge from each prize pool.
Social Gaming Applications and Micro-payments
Social gaming create games that are immersive and entertaining but don't require a lot of game time to enjoy playing. Ubiquitous and frictionless gaming – easy to access and free to play for the casual gamer. Micro-payments is very popular and promotes “snack” gaming, which is frequent session play due to compulsion loops. MYeGamer will host social games like Farmville, Mafia Wars, etc. We will be a platform for social gaming publishers as well as flash game publishers. MYeGamer will share micro-payment revenues from these games with game publishers.
Advertising
Social distribution – Direct to consumer publishing coupled with channels enabling player-to-player viral distribution. As brand advertising shifts rapidly from offline to online, advertisers are looking for niche websites as they increasingly spend time apart from traditional media outlets. A recent report from eMarketer notes the importance of social networks online, estimating their marketing to reach $2.5 billion by 2011 in the U.S.
Sponsored Events
Seamless end-to-end solutions – provide sponsors with marketing, advertising, and operational services for any online or offline event. MYeGamer will create strategic partnerships with major gaming corporations to connect with MYeGamer's user base to promote their products. Our platform is designed to host any size tournament and event on our website. Our system allows sponsored events to be messaged to all users of MYeGamer.com.
Gaming Services
Games as a Service (GaaS) – Provide gaming services such as cloud server hosting, client applications, and support to internet cafes and gamers. MYeGamer will seek online gaming partners such as OnLive to stream games directly to our users.
Merchandise
Clothing, computer accessories, and console accessories.
Competitive advantage
Competitors: There are competitors in existence today; but they are fragmented and provide piece-meal functionalities that deter users from having a satisfying experience. We plan to centralize gaming functions at one place to attract the most gaming users.
Major League Gaming (www.mlgpro.com)
Leland Jones, a pro gamer for MLG since 2005, talks about his experience with the league,
"I have been attending MLG events since 2005 and have been a professional player (team ranked among the top 16) every year I've participated. As a pro player you would think I receive great benefits, seeing as this is the only professional console league in the US.
Since 2005, MLG has promised pro players many different things to keep our interest but has never delivered. They promised Sponsors for all pro teams, the only sponsored teams are in the top 3. They promised media coverage for all pro teams to help get sponsors, the only teams mentioned ever are the top teams. I placed 6th at the national championships in 2007 and did not receive one word in the write-up or TV show that followed. We have pro player meetings every event and all I hear about is how the top teams are getting more than they already have. Not only do they bring in all the prize money (because MLG hasn't changed it in 4 years), they also get the sponsors, the media time and all the free gear. The reason MLG is still where they are is because they are the only game in town. Many pro players have posted their disgust with MLG on the public forums, the posts usually get taken down and we get some run around about how they are "working hard" on fixing the issues. I haven't seen any progress on our end in 5 years and quite frankly it's time for a change. "
Our Competitive Advantages
- Founded by professional gamers who know the market and who understand gamers and how tournaments should be ran.
- No down times ;There is always a tournament running on the website.
- A very user-friendly platform for competitive, hardcore or casual types of gamers.
- Gamers and sponsors can create and host their own events on MYeGamer.com
- Gamers will finally have a platform to voice their opinions on competitive gaming.
- Competitive gamers of all levels will have the chance to compete against other gamers for rewards and reputation (EGO points).
- Support from gaming communities that want a gamer run website.
- MYeGamer has a higher reward rate, rewarding gamers in the top 30% instead of only top 1%
- Professional gamers will be provided with more incentives and bonuses like high stake tournaments and broader prize pools.
Andrew Littlewood
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