Christmas has come early for the bank’s shareholders with the decision to slightly increase the 2024 dividend – despite a single-digit decline in the net profit and cash earnings.
Beating the market benchmark is never easy, with 72 per cent of Australian actively managed global equity general funds trailing the S&P World Index in the six months to June 30, 2024. Domestic equity funds performed slightly better, albeit against a significantly lower bar set by the S&P/ASX 200 Index.
Pandemic has done little to slow the Esports boom
Put simply, Esports is computer gaming at its highest level. It’s playing games against other people at a professional level, not gambling. Yes, there is such a thing. And they draw big crowds at huge arenas with contestants winning huge sums of money as prizes. In the same way that football and cricket players are sponsored to play at the MCG, so are Esports players. They train and compete on their respective games just as a cricketer or any other sportsperson would. It sounds weird, but it is very real, and it’s a global phenomenon.
Since its humble beginnings in 2007, the Intel Extreme Masters tournament has grown into a sold-out stadium event with millions of fans watching it all over the world. A dedicated arena in Los Angeles has been purpose-built for hosting and streaming Overwatch League events. Some US universities even offer Esports scholarships. As in any sport, players are motivated by cash, fame, and quick success; it’s the love of the game – and being very good at it – that induces players to turn pro.
The types of games that are available for play vary from shooters such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Esports and Call of Duty, to sports titles, and Battle Royale games like Fortnite. A game needs two factors for it to succeed: 1. Fun. A game must be fun to play and enjoyable to watch otherwise it becomes boring very quickly. 2. Balance is key. A game becomes uninteresting very fast if there is no balance. For example, if one gun was better than all, nobody would use anything else and each match would be incredibly repetitive.
Enter Esports Mogul (ASX: ESH)
Esports Mogul is an online gaming tournament specialist. The firm hosts Esports events that captivate audiences with the world’s most-played games. ESH has its own platform that “includes first-of-its-kind functionality that drives the best possible player experience,” and its strategy team is dedicated to creating events that lead to measurable results. Esports Mogul has already started generating revenue from operations but is going through a revamp of its business model because it wasn’t financially viable – which is shown by the company’s share price fall, from 2.9c to 1.1c. As such, the company has decided to spend this quarter reinvesting into its business model, to stay ahead of the eSports trend.
It has also launched a new business-to-business (B2B) website targeting brands looking to get involved in the eSports scene. “Esports remains a lucrative, but complicated and nuanced, channel to navigate, with brands struggling to connect authentically with gamers and deliver a meaningful ROI.” The company sees this as its biggest opportunity, which is why it has created a new “solutions engineering” team, operating at the heart of any client engagement. “The team focuses on delivering elegant and simple solutions to a complicated set of problems. Strategically, this paradigm furthers our ability to garner and retain business.”
Highlights from the quarterly statement
- Mogul meaningfully expanded into North America, deploying new Martech products on behalf of multinational food giant Kellogg’s.
- Established Martech product tiering, providing brands with (Bronze, Silver, Gold) varying degrees of platform customisation.
- Launched its solutions engineering team, aimed at driving incremental revenue across each engagement.
- Developed sales model, targeting Esports agencies as an accelerant to revenue generation.
- Launched its new B2B positioning site launched and in market esh.mogul.gg, that now dovetails with its new positioning to Brands.
- Successfully concluded its innovative technology test in SEA, garnering several important insights.
Mogul recently announced plans to deliver Esports tournaments for ReWired Fest, powered by Walmart. Here are the highlights of that announcement:
- Mogul continues to gain traction in North America with globally recognised brands using the tournament platform for branded esports events.
- Mogul has been chosen as the esports platform of choice for the “ReWired Festival” series, hosted near Bentonville, Arkansas.
- “The Road To ReWired” represents the first in a multi-year, multi-event program, working alongside event planning group, ReWiredFest LLC.
- Master services agreement covers a licence fee for three months access to the Mogul tournament platform and managed services delivered by Mogul’s industry-leading solutions engineering team.
- The ReWired Festival initiative opens a new revenue stream with a strategic partner, laying the groundwork for multiple future events.
- Mogul’s innovative Sit’n’Go technology offers festival gamers an ‘always-on’ Esports tournament experience.
The company says the ReWired Festival, powered by Walmart, is an “immersive esports and tech experience designed to inspire and encourage young, diverse minds to pursue passions in science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM). ReWired’s online esports qualifier tournament begins in June and leads up to our in-person championship finale; a two-day festival celebration in Northwest Arkansas, featuring unbeatable prizes, retro gameplay, music and action sports.” Rewired Fest offers participating gamers a chance to compete for a prize pool of $100,000 brought to you by ReWired Fest LLC and the sponsorship partners.”
Not bad for an ASX-listed micro-cap (currently $34.8 million.)
