Esports entrepreneur Alexander Garfield announced his new company today -- PopDog, a combination of three gaming industry service providers, including the agency that reps global phenomenon streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins. Garfield and three other co-founders have acquired Loaded, which handles merchandising, sponsorship and creative for Ninja and other non-competitive gaming personalities; NoScope, a Twitch analytics software provider; and the esports division of Catalyst Sports & Media, a consultant to new esports investors and marketers. The company is backed financially by Makers Fund, which led a $9M Series A funding round that also includes Korea Investment Partners. PopDog aims to help the esports industry better monetize its devoted, commercially desirable fan base, Garfield said in a statement. Some esports investors are growing concerned that revenue has been slower to come to the industry than projected. “The industry needs a back end, and our mission is to be that back end by supporting the ecosystem as a whole with a comprehensive offering of technology and services,” Garfield said. Catalyst Sports & Media, founded in '16 by former Relativity Sports execs Happy Walters and Josh Swartz, will continue on as a basketball-focused agency under Walters’ management. Swartz will join the new company as COO and a shareholder in PopDog. “We have always been very interested in the influencer space, and this started with us looking to invest in this new company, and morphed over a period of months into something I really want to join,” Swartz said.
EXECS UNCERTAIN ABOUT NEXT MOVES: Catalyst esports consultant Bryce Blum will not be joining PopDog, saying yesterday he will take a month off and evaluate his options. He will continue operating his esports law firm, ESG Law. Fellow Catalyst esports consultant, Avi Bhuiyan, said he has been approached by PopDog but will not make a decision about his future until January. Loaded Founder Brandon Freytag and NoScope co-Founders Justin Malara and Kyle DeWitt also are joining the new company as shareholders. Before most traditional sports investors discovered esports, Garfield was among its most prominent execs. He built the team organizations Evil Geniuses and Alliance before selling their parent company, GoodGame, to Twitch in '14. He is the winningest individual team owner in esports. Garfield is joined by three other co-founders: CCO Colin DeShong, his former partner and COO of GoodGame; CTO & CPO Andreas Thorstensson, who co-founded the team SK Gaming and the online community SoGamed; and CSO Niles Heron.
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