League Two side Notts County is being "challenged financially" because of its success this season, Owner Alan Hardy said. The club is second in League Two and beat Oxford City 3-2 on Saturday to reach the FA Cup third round. Hardy: "It's going the wrong way [financially] due to the fact the players are doing so well on the pitch. Each month we're paying out over £40,000 ($53,891) in bonuses to players and management because they are on great win bonuses" (BBC, 12/3).
A 20B yuan ($3.02B) smart sports Fund of Funds was set up in Zhejiang Province with co-founders Huayun Zhiti Investments, the Hangzhou Future Science & Technology City Management Committee, Zhe Jin Trust and the Zhejiang Daily Media Group. The FOF and another 3B yuan ($453.3M) sports fund has been listed as one of the 12 key projects at Qiantang River Financial Harbour in Hangzhou City (TENCENT, 11/29).
Digital entertainment company Modern Times Group launched a $30M investment fund, which will target gaming companies in the U.S. and Europe. It will focus on high potential companies at an early stage. MTG will annually invest in five to 10 gaming companies for the next three years. The news comes days after the publication of the Q3 interim financial report, which saw organic esports sales grow by 49%. The fund is not exclusively targeted to esports, but also online gaming and augmented or virtual reality companies that present "strategic value to the group" in their respective fields (ESPORTS OBSERVER, 12/1).
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