Gaming
Bidstack secures $11m to become best-funded in-game advertising company

Bidstack, the in-game advertising and video game monetisation platform, today announces it has raised a total of USD $11 million in a new round of funding. This includes a $6 million strategic investment from digital platform cybersecurity world leader, Irdeto, and brings Bidstack’s total funding to $42 million – the most raised for any company in the in-game advertising industry to-date.
This is the first strategic investment in Bidstack’s seven-year history and will fuel the pioneering company’s US growth strategy following the recent hire of Jude O’Connor as Chief Revenue Officer. With more than 80 staff across five international locations, Bidstack now has the infrastructure and talent in place to take on the huge, untapped opportunity for in-game advertising in the US market. Bidstack has already run award-winning in-game campaigns for brands such as Marriott Bonvoy, Paco Rabanne, and Doritos, and works with world-leading game publishers such as Codemasters, and Take-Two Interactive.
Irdeto entered the video games industry with the acquisition of anti-cheat software company Denuvo. The company’s suite of software products are used by a majority of leading console, PC, and mobile titles, creating extensive synergies with Bidstack’s ever-growing developer and publisher network, and breadth of ad formats which now includes rewarded video in addition to in-game and in-menu.
James Draper, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Bidstack, commented
“I am pleased to share that we have secured our first strategic investment, from Irdeto B.V. Irdeto, part of the Multichoice Group, is established as one of the world’s leading cybersecurity businesses, with their gaming division Denuvo being trusted as a leading anti-cheat middleware across the world’s most celebrated gaming platforms and franchises. Irdeto’s positioning across the gaming and entertainment space will lead to many opportunities for our two companies to collaborate going forward, as strategic partners.”
Globally, the in-game advertising market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 11% to 2030, from its current estimated valuation of $7.6 billion. This figure represents just under 1% of the $850 billion global advertising market, despite more than three billion people playing games on a daily basis.
Gaming
Gamebox Global Launch by Froyo Games: Where Skill Meets Rewards

Froyo Games has officially launched its flagship Web3 gaming arcade, Gamebox, which allows players to participate in competitive mini-games and win exciting prizes, such as the Moca NFTs by Mocaverse.
Built on Froyo Games’ multichain GameFi platform, Gamebox is designed to provide an accessible ecosystem for both game developers and users. The platform is powered by the $FROYO token, based on the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain networks and listed on several major exchanges, including PancakeSwap, ApeSwap, BKEX, BTSE, and CoinW.
Gamebox operates similarly to a funfair, where players use an in-game currency called Gems to pay for each game. Each game costs one Gem, and players can win Tickets based on their performance in each game. These Tickets can be used to win NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and other exciting rewards.
A key feature that sets Gamebox apart from other gaming platforms is its unique approach to prize winning. Rather than selecting a game, players choose the prize they want to win and compete against others across a rotation of different games. With each rotation, players can strive to achieve the highest scores to rank on the leaderboard. The top players on the leaderboard of each game will be awarded Tickets to enter a raffle for the prize.
The raffle will be triggered once Tickets are awarded up to a certain threshold. When the threshold has been reached, the prize draw will take place automatically, with players who have more Tickets in the contest having a greater chance of winning.
By combining skill-based gameplay with the excitement of prize draws, Gamebox offers a unique and engaging Web3 gaming experience for players of all levels. With a wide range of prizes available, there is something for everyone to compete for on the platform.
Froyo Games has secured major investments from top industry players, including Animoca Brands, Spartan, WeMade, and GBV Capital. With the launch of Gamebox, Froyo Games aims to provide a fun and rewarding Web3 gaming experience for players worldwide.
Gaming
Story-driven cyberpunk hack-and-slash FARSIDERS kicks off its Kickstarter

GambitGhost Studio Co., Ltd. is thrilled to showcase FARSIDERS, a story-driven, action hack-and-slash game based on real world Arthurian legends. The game is set in a stylized futuristic cyberpunk world abundant with technology and magic, where time travel is one of the core elements of the storyline. GambitGhost Studio is now also super excited to be launching their new campaign on Kickstarter, which goes live on April 5th.
Following the huge success at the 2022 Thailand Game Show, FARSIDERS is committed to involving their newly built community in perfecting the game – the Alpha test has been completed in February 2023. With extremely valuable feedback from the community during the Alpha Test, the studio is determined to go the extra mile in developing more features, and making the user experience even more immersive and enjoyable. The goal of the Kickstarter campaign is to generate extra funds for these extra features, to enhance certain gameplay mechanics like animations and combat.
Backers will be entitled to a range of exclusive and limited rewards, based on a tiered approach. These rewards comprise special skins and early access, limited collectable FARSIDERS cards, a FARSIDERS eco-blanket, or even their own non-playable characters (NPC) within the game.
FARSIDERS Kickstarter campaign will be live from April 5th, 2023 to May 5th, 2023. Supporters can add the game to their wishlist on both Kickstarter and Steam pages:
“You, Farsiders, are the reason where we are today. We are grateful to all of you who have supported us on this journey so far and we hope that you will join us in our new campaign.
Thank you for being a part of our community!
See you on the other side, Farsiders.”
eSports
Tekken star Abhinav Tejan and eFootball ace Ibrahim Gulrez crowned champions of NESC 2023; qualify for 15th World Esports Championships

Putting up stellar performances, notable Tekken athlete Abhinav Tejan and eFootball pro Ibrahim Gulrez triumphed in the finals of the National Esports Championships (NESC) 2023 organized by the Esports Federation of India (ESFI) and secured their berths at the global finals of the 15th World Esports Championships (WEC) which will take place in Iasi, Romania from August 24 – September 4, 2023.
The 15th World Esports Championship 2023 will have a whopping prize pool of $500,000 (INR 4.12 crore) and is set to be the largest edition of the tournament to date with at least 130 countries participating in eFootball, DOTA 2, Tekken7, Mobile Legends, PUBG: Mobile and CS:GO.
Despite starting from the loser bracket, Tejan who is a well-renowned name from the Tekken7 community proved his mettle against other top athletes of the country and will be representing India at the WEC for a record 6th time. The 29-year-old who won the South Asia regional finals of the Tekken World Tour 2022 last year defeated Loveneet in the grand finals by 3-2, 3-2.
“I have won a lot of tournaments in these past few years but winning the NESC 2023 was really important to me I had lost two times in it in the past 2 years. So, I wanted to make a comeback by winning it this year. Qualifying for the IESF finals in Romania had given me the chance to represent India for the 6th time in IESF finals which is personally a really proud moment. I am really looking forward to the finals where I will try my level best to get my country a medal this year,” said Abhinav Tejan.
Similar to Tejan, Gulrez also began his campaign from the loser bracket and displayed immense perseverance as well as high-quality gameplay to become the eFootball champion. He beat Pritesh Quinton Dsouza (bad_pritt) by winning the first round by 3-2 and the second round by 3-0 to seal his maiden qualification at the WEC.
“The feeling is really amazing. I have been trying to achieve this feat for the last couple of years and to finally get there feels amazing. My victory involved a mixture of hard work and some luck. One can only feel that happiness after trying so hard to win the competition for the last couple of seasons,” said Ibrahim Gulrez.
Alongside Tekken and eFootball, the esteemed national qualifiers were also organized for popular PC titles CS:GO and DOTA 2.
In CS:GO (Open), Team Orgless5 toppled the two-time NESC champions Team Wicked Gaming by winning the finals by 2-0. Comprising team captain Harsh Jain (f1redup), Jaspreet Singh (SpawN), Sadab Khan (SK wow^), Piyush Kalwania (clouda), Nikhil Kathe (N1kace) and substitute Omkar Thube (omkar09), the team was dominant throughout the tournament and produced scintillating performances against India’s leading CS:GO teams.
“Our motto to win the qualifiers was to trust the process, trust ourselves and trust our decisions. We worked extremely hard to defeat the country’s best CS:GO teams and become the champions. The World Esports Championships are very important for us and now we will prove ourselves in the regional qualifiers to qualify for the global finals as well,” said Harsh Jain, captain of Team Orgless5.
On the other hand, Team Top G comprising skipper Manav Kunte (mnz), Vishal Vernekar (HBK), Abhishek Yadav (Abhi-), Shahbaz Hussain (PinkMaN), Krish Gupta (Krish`) and substitute Jaikishan Malik (KaEL) prevailed in the finals of DOTA 2 by defeating Team Mob with a 2-0 score line in the finals. The squad’s notable players Vishal and Abhishek were also part of the historic DOTA 2 team that won the bronze medal at the Commonwealth Esports Championships in 2022.
“We are beyond ecstatic to win the DOTA 2 India Qualifiers and it is an honour for us to represent India on the international stage. We have put in countless hours of practice, analyzing every move, and strategizing every play to reach this point, and it’s an incredible feeling to see our hard work pay off. The team has an unbreakable bond and we know that we can achieve anything if we keep this synergy together. We would also like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to ESFI for providing us with this amazing opportunity to showcase our skills on a national platform and we promise to give our best shot to bring home the championship,” said Manav Kunte, captain of Team Top G.
Team Orgless5 and Top G will now be participating in the upcoming Asia regional qualifiers to qualify for the global finals of WEC 2023. The teams will first be competing in the South Asian qualifiers in online mode and upon qualifying will play the regional finals offline. The dates of the regional qualifiers will be announced by the International Federation soon.
One of the country’s top sports & Esports communication agencies, Artsmith-Concepts & Visions, will continue its support to the Esports Federation of India as their official communication partner. NESC23 was also supported by Upthrust (Event Partner), Inox (Multiplex Partner) & Hama (Training Partner)
The NESC’23 concluded on Monday, March 27 and witnessed a total participation of 275 athletes from all over the country.
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