Bidstack Launches in the US; EA Data Breach Affects 1600 Fifa 20 Global Series Competitors
TheGamingEconomy Daily Digest brings you the trending business stories in gaming. In today’s edition: Bidstack launches in the US; EA data breach affects 1600 Fifa 20 Global Series competitors; and Reality Gaming Group to raise £1.5m.
Bidstack launches in the US
Bidstack Group PLC, an ad tech company which enables brands to purchase native in-game inventory programmatically, has launched in the US. The firm’s efforts across the Atlantic, which have been on the cards since August this year, will be led by ad tech veteran Adam Fisher, and entertainment expert John Koronaios, who will be operating out of New York and San Francisco respectively.
James Draper, CEO of Bidstack said, “With the US being the biggest gaming market in the world, with revenues reaching almost $37bn (£30bn), and home to some of the biggest names in games publishing, launching here has been on our roadmap since day one. Following our recent trading agreements with several DSPs, including The Trade Desk, Xandr Invest’s buy-side technology platform and our new partnership with Dentsu, now is the right time to make that move.”
EA data breach affects 1600 Fifa 20 Global Series competitors
EA has apologised for a data breach which has compromised an estimated 1600 competitors for its Fifa 20 Global Series. Players enlisting to the esports tournament reported seeing personal details of other players on the sign-up screen, which included email, date of birth, and country of residence.
In a statement on Twitter, an EA spokesperson said, “We were able to root cause the issue and implement a fix to be clear that information is protected[…] Player privacy and security are of the utmost importance to us, and we deeply apologise that our players encountered this issue today”
Reality Gaming Group to raise £1.5m
Reality Gaming Group, which has developed the mobile AR combat title Reality Clash, has opened a £1.5m funding round supported by its blockchain-recorded Security Token Offering (STO), along with traditional equity investment. The firm has also announced that it will be licensing two of its products to third-party developers, namely The Reality Platform, for the development of AR and geo-location-enabled titles, and its Digital Assset Trading (DAT) Platform, which allows developers to create owned ‘tokenised assets’.
Announcing the round, Tony Pearce, co-founder of Reality Gaming Group, said, “We’re tremendously excited to be embarking on the next phase of Reality Gaming Group’s growth. As one of the first games companies to have raised money via an ICO in 2017 and successfully delivered a blockchain based game, as outlined in our original white paper, it’s great to offer investors another pioneering way to invest via a Security Token Offering.”
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