This week in esports: PlayVS, VENN, Richard Sherman, BLAST Premier

As always, we’ve rounded up the biggest and best stories from the past week so you can stay in the loop. This week in esports saw PlayVS and VENN raise significant capital, Richard Sherman join Luminosity Gaming, and the unveiling of BLAST Premier.

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PlayVS raises $50 million in Series C round

North American high school esports platform PlayVS raised $50 million (£40.1 million) in its Series C funding round.

The round was led by NEA and saw participation from Battery Ventures, Dick Costolo and Adam Bain of 01 Advisors, Michael Zeisser, Sapphire Sports, Dennis Phelps, General Partner at IVP, and Michael Ovitz, Co-founder of CAA.

Read the full article here.

VENN launches with $17M in seed funding

Video Game Entertainment & News Network (VENN), an esports network headed by Ariel Thorn and Ben Kusin, was announced.

The network, which is set to launch in 2020 with live studios in New York and Los Angeles, has raised $17 million (£13.61 million) in a seed funding round.

Read the full article here.

Richard Sherman joins Luminosity Gaming as shareholder

American NFL athlete Richard Sherman was announced as a shareholder in Canadian organisation Luminosity Gaming.

Sherman will attend live activations for the organisation and its parent company, Enthusiast Gaming. He will also challenge other NFL players to play with the organisation’s Seattle Call of Duty franchise as part of his secondary role of brand ambassador.

Read the full article here.

BLAST Premier announced with $4.25M prize pool for 2020

BLAST Pro Series announced a new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament series, BLAST Premier, which will have a total annual prize pool of $4.25 million (£3.4 million) in 2020.

The circuit will have two season finals and a Global Final where the winning team will take home $500,000 (£399,807.50) and $1,000,000 (£799,615) respectively.

Read the full article here.

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