Dallas' Infinite Esports Acquired by LA Esports Company in Industry's First $100 Million Deal

Immortals Gaming Club has acquired Dallas-based Infinite Esports & Entertainment in what parties involved describe as the largest transaction in the history of the esports industry.The purchase valued Infinite Esports at $100 million, and makes the merged company the largest esports organization in the world in terms of its sheer size, according to a release from IGC Wednesday."IGC's total audience size is nearly three times larger than our nearest competitors," IGC CEO Ari Segal said in a statement.Immortals is backed by former Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman and the family of Michael Milken. Investors in Infinite Esports which include the cofounders of the Texas Rangers, Neil Leibman and Ray Davis, will become investors in IGC.Los Angeles-based Immortals Gaming Club will now include Infinite Esports' OpTic, Immortals, Brazilian team MIBR and Overwatch League team the LA Valiant under its umbrella of esports organizations."Bringing together OpTic and IGC creates an organization with an impressive set of assets, a strong management team, a world class Board of Directors and the necessary capital to scale in an exciting marketplace," said Neil Leibman.With the acquisition of Infinite Esports' OpTic, the company is also getting a second Overwatch League team – the Houston Outlaws.In order to preserve competitive integrity Activision Blizzard, which owns and oversees the Overwatch League, vowed the league will provide "close oversight" and that the teams will operate as "entirely separate entities."Individual team franchises in the Overwatch League, specifically, have been valued at around $60-80 million depending on the city they represent. The teams' valuations have seen a rapid increase in a short period of time as various reports have projected the industry could see revenues in the billions of dollars over the next several years.  Continue reading...