
Activate Entertainment is a livestream and production company looking to create and distribute engaging original content, and offer professional studio services at modern rates.
Summary
Established in 2018, Activate Entertainment brings professional content creation, custom IP development, film, television and event services to the esports and gaming industry.
Offering fully-equipped offices and studios in Las Vegas, Activate is uniquely positioned to fulfill a wide variety of activations, pulling from a talent resource of dozens of technical, admin, production and management staffers.
Founded by content and production management professionals Chris Iaquinta and Dirk Hagen, Activate Entertainment provides a pedigree of excellence to all its partnerships and activations.
Problem
The eSports Event Industry
The last few years have seen massive growth in the eSports industry. Since last year, the pandemic has had a huge role to play in the increasing popularity of video games as travel has been restricted as well as the fact that work from home has seen an increasing level of acceptance.
Recently, the eSports industry has faced challenges with hosting events such as tournaments, meetups, conventions, conferences, and main events. The challenges with hosting these events vary, but some examples include:
- Poor & inconsistent ROI - many existing esports and gaming productions and events are produced by teams and individuals with little to no professional activation experience, resulting in subpar deliverables that leaves sponsors, venues and participants unsatisfied. Previous mishandling of esports activations have led to large brands opting to no longer supply advertising budget for the esports industry.
- Low-performing custom content - many attempts to distribute and sell esports/gaming content to traditional broadcast networks and streaming services/platforms have resulted in low viewership and substantial loss on investment. The most common recurring cause is lack of experience and followthrough in the development and distribution process
- Technical issues and glitches - power outages, servers crashing, and wiring/setup issues have plagued eSports events, resulting in teams losing massive cash prizes (upwards of $3 million!), which is extremely frustrating to deal with.
- Logistical issues - most of these issues are a result of poor planning on behalf of the event organizer or the teams themselves. Examples of these issues include last minute changes to rules and regulations, travel planning issues, inadequate food and supplies, and player's equipment/property being lost.
The eSports industry has grown to be worth $1 billion in 2021*, and has seen extreme growth over the past couple years. In order to meet this massive amount of growth, there needs to be reliable providers for event hosting for the wide variety of eSports events.
*https://www.statista.com/statistics/490522/global-esports-market-revenue/
Solution
Premium Services for the eSports & Gaming Industry
Activate specializes in providing 360 hands-off activation management services for dozens of the biggest eSports and gaming companies in the world, bringing decades of experience to each production.
We seek to be the premium provider for future eSports activations, by providing the level of care and expertise that other activation management companies cannot provide. Due to our background and knowledge within the space, we can be the #1 solution for hosting any type of gaming related production.
Custom Content Development
A major part of our 2022 initiative is to devote a considerable amount of our effort and resources towards the development, creation and distribution of Activate-owned content, shows, events and activations. We currently produce a number of Activate-own IPs annually, and want to aggressively expand that business vertical to maximize margins, revenue and licensing opportunities.
Part of that strategy will include the development of content meant for distribution to major streaming platforms, and partnerships with top venues in the US to host recurring productions and events year after year.
Our Services
Product
Production Capabilities
Activate Entertainment is a production and studio management partner for the Black Fire Innovation Center located in Las Vegas, NV.
Project Spotlights:
Business Model
Activate Entertainment generates revenue through a variety of services.
- eSports Livestream Management
- Studio Production
- eSports Event and Venue Management
- eSports Tournament Operations
- Gaming Expos
- Content Creation and Production
Traction
Our Brand Partners
Activate Entertainment is thrilled to work with some of the best-known entertainment and gaming brands in the world, collaborating on dozens of different activation types.
In addition, Activate Entertainment has seen rapid amounts of growth, with a 150% increase in YOY revenues from 2019 to 2020. Our revenues in 2020 were totaled to $750,000 for the year.
We are slated to easily surpass $1.2mil in revenue in 2022, thanks to efforts made in 2021 to adapt to new challenges and production requests resulting from Covid restrictions.
Market
- eSports Market: $1.1 billion in revenues from eSports competitions in 2020.
- Gaming Content: $5.6 billion in revenues from gaming content creation in 2018.
- Live Streaming: 3.1 billion hours watched on Twitch in Q1 2020 alone.
- The Global eSports industry is growing at the rate of 30% year-over-year.
Company Vision
The future of esports and gaming content development
Founders
Chris Iaquinta: With a content creation and publishing background that goes back over two decades, Chris has lead editorial and production teams on projects in virtually every entertainment medium. A California native that now resides in Las Vegas, NV, Chris' primary role in Activate is to manage the overall content development strategy for associated brands, partners and agencies.
Dirk Hagen: Bringing over thirty years of traditional film and television production to the company, Dirk Hagen provides Activate Entertainment with the experience, professionalism and industry connections associated with working in the Hollywood entertainment industry for three decades. Dirk manages Activate's day-to-day logistical, service management and capabilities workload, and provides leadership resources on major projects and productions.