Semper Fortis will become one of the first professional esports companies to enter the play-to-earn market via its very own division of the SMPR team                                                                              

Semper Fortis Esports PLC, the esports company focused on establishing esports teams, forming brand and technology partnerships, and providing business to business advisory services, is pleased to announce its entry into the blockchain based, Non-fungible Token (NFT) video game, Axie Infinity and collectible card game, Hearthstone.                                                                             

The company’s esports team, SMPR has made an official signing of Aleksei Bakumenko (‘Iner’) to compete in both Axie Infinity and Hearthstone for the upcoming season. The player has signed a three-month contract with an option to renew for an additional six months thereafter. They will receive an annual salary and performance-based incentives.                                                                           

The new hire is the first competitive esports players competing in the play-to-earn division of Semper Fortis Esports, where players will be incentivised to compete on behalf of the company for cryptocurrency-based returns in the form of NFTs.                                                                           

Axie Infinity is a trading and battling game that allows players to collect, breed, raise, battle and trade creatures known as “axies” (characters based on axolotl), which are digitized as NFTs. The game uses a “play-to-earn” model (also called “pay-to-play-to-earn” model) where participants can earn a token which is traded on Binance as an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency. Players can also exchange in-game assets as NFTs. Axie Infinity allows users to cash-out these tokens for monetary gains every 14 days.                                                                              

In October 2021, Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis the developer of Axie infinity raised $150 million Series B at a $3 billion Valuation with highly renowned investors involved including Andreessen Horowitz and Mark Cuban. As of October 2021, the game nears 2 million Daily Active Users and has generated close to $2.3 billion in total sales volume since it was launched in 2018.                                                                              

With this appointment, the company will be one of the first professional esports companies to enter the play-to-earn market via its very own division of the SMPR team. The company will look to expand on this division through development and recruitment to earn NFT based rewards through games as a revenue model going forward. Axie tokens are currently trading at circa $120, a staggering 1,200x their initial offer price from 2020.                                     

In addition to Axie Infinity, the newly recruited Aleksei Bakumenko (‘Iner’) is a current ranked Hearthstone player and will also look to compete in the popular free-to-play online digital collectible card game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. The game is played as an esport, with high-level tournaments such as Blizzard’s official World Championship featuring a prize pool of up to $1 million.                                                                           

Iner’ is currently ranked in ninth place in the Hearthstone EMEA and comes with a digital footprint of almost 75,000 followers across social media channels comprising of 1,475 followers on Twitter, 68,200 followers on Twitch and 4,770 subscribers on YouTube.                                                                            

Iner’s addition takes the total number of active players on the SMPR roster across to nine and opens the brand up to two new competitive esports and audience types across a digital presence. The player comes with a distinguished digital footprint and a significant following from his competitive region of Russia, a market which the Company sees as a large opportunity to capture in the esports space.                                                                                                   

Kevin Soltani, CEO of Semper Fortis Esports, commented: “Our team is extremely proud to share the additions of Axie Infinity and Hearthstone to our esports games participation and to further strengthen our player roster. Semper Fortis is determined to revolutionise the play to earn space, in merging it with competitive esports play. Our latest signing will pioneer our strategy to build out the SMPR play-to-earn division, opening doors for a new pool of players entering the esports space and diversifying the company’s revenue model. Gaming and blockchain are two of the fastest growing industries and with our team being highly experienced in both, we are geared for an exciting season ahead.”                                                                        

Nolan Bushnell, a Non-Executive Director of Semper Fortis Esports, commented: “The play-to- earn movement is currently in rapid growth and we are very excited to see its evolving nature in the world of competitive esports.”

Endpoint CeX, in partnership with Chiliz, the leading global blockchain providers for the sports and entertainment industry, have officially announced that they will launch a $ENDCEX Fan Token on the fan engagement app Socios.

Endpoint CeX will become the first UK based esports organisation to join Socios.com and the sixth esports partner overall on the platform. The Fan Token Offering (FTO®)  will take place on November 18th.

Fan Tokens are collectible digital assets, minted on the Chiliz blockchain, that provide owners with access to voting rights in polls, VIP rewards, exclusive promotions, AR-enabled features, chat forums, games and competitions on Socios.

Endpoint CeX will use Fan Tokens to empower their fanbase with a selection of unique and exciting rewards. Fans who purchase $ENDCEX Fan Tokens will have access to content, activations around Endpoint players, exclusive rewards from retailer CeX and the opportunity to attend events as special guests. Endpoint will also host monthly polls where its fans can vote and have a direct impact on key organisational decisions. The subject of the first poll will be announced very soon.

Over 70 major sporting organizations have partnered with Socios.com to launch Fan Tokens, including FC Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, AC Milan, Atlético Madrid, Valencia, Manchester City, Inter Milan, Arsenal and the Argentina and Portugal national football teams. Socios is also rapidly expanding its presence in the U.S. with two thirds of the NBA on board and more teams set to follow. MMA giants UFC have launched a Fan Token as have fellow MMA organisation the PFL.

Created by Chiliz, the leading blockchain provider for the global sports and entertainment industry, Socios has major expansion plans and is targeting many more Fan Token launches throughout the world. Socios has multiple office locations around the world and has already opened new regional headquarters in Madrid, Istanbul, São Paulo and Buenos Aires. The company will open a new office in North America in the near future.

Peter Thompson, COO of Endpoint CeX said: “We are extremely pleased to bring the next level of fan engagement to our ever growing and amazing supporters. Partnering with Socios on the launch of our Fan Token is really going to help change the way we nurture and develop UK esports, especially alongside the launch of the new Endpoint HQ in 2022. We are excited to invite our fans to help shape the future of Endpoint CeX and be able to reward them in new and innovative ways.”

Frank Orchard, Franchise Director, CeX said: “CeX is excited to launch our Socios Fan Token in partnership with Endpoint. This highlights our strong gaming heritage and furthers our investment in the fast growing esports arena.”

Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of Chiliz and Socios said:  “We’re delighted to welcome Endpoint CeX to Socios as our sixth partner in esports and the first from the UK. We’re fully committed to creating amazing opportunities for Endpoint CeX fans around the world and look forward to revealing more about this partnership – including details on the groundbreaking first poll –  soon.”

Biconomy, the multichain relayer network building the infrastructure to simplify the web3.0 experience, has announced that it has partnered with Virtually Human Studio, creators of ZED RUN, the popular digital horse racing platform, to integrate its cross chain bridge, Hyphen. Hyphen enables instant and low-cost token transfers across different blockchains.

This is one of the first in-game bridges to be used on a web3.0 gaming dApp, setting a precedent for all future web3.0 gaming experiences. Users don’t have to leave the dApp to use another bridge interface and wait for 20-30 min. They stay on the ZED RUN dApp & immediately get their funds on ZED RUN so they can experience a seamless experience.

“dApp games are fraught with complicated onboarding processes that have resulted in a broken gaming experience. Hyphen will change all that by bringing in-game bridge features to blockchain gaming platforms,” Ahmed Al-Balaghi, CEO of Biconomy, said.

Biconomy’s Hyphen bridge enables developers to offer instantaneous value transfers between EVM chains, various L2s, and sidechains. By integrating Hyphen onto ZED RUN, users will be able to exchange funds (ETH to Polygon) without leaving the app. This solution removes the need for non-native gaming bridges. Currently, ZED RUN has been beta testing the integration with a select group of its users. The solution is expected to go live on their dApp in the next couple of weeks.

“Our partnership with Biconomy enables us to bring users a more seamless gaming experience. Hyphens cross-chain transactions will transform the way users can interact with blockchain games and ZED RUN is thrilled to be one of the first to implement a native cross-chain bridge into a gaming dApp,” Geoff Wellman, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Virtually Human Studio, said.