TEAMS announced as winner of The Clutch Digital

Esports is a promising industry by all metrics and as such, plenty of budding entrepreneurs are launching their own companies in an effort to change it for the better and get a a piece of the action. This, in turn, leads to a lot of startups competing against one another for the spotlight.

The Clutch is how Esports Insider provides a platform to such startups – not only when it comes to general awareness, but with finding potential business mentors, invaluable connections, and potentially investment too.

As part of last week’s ESI Digital Summit (#ESIDIGITAL), the largest online esports conference to date, ESI launched The Clutch Digital to allow four startups to pitch to an esteemed panel of judges and investors.

We received many applications but they had to be whittled down to just four, from there pitching in a short period of time and answering questions from the judges – all while being live in front of hundreds of people, virtually.

Esports player betting platform Puntt, a part of RPGG Media, player-connecting platform TEAMS, mobile focused service provider Gamerpro, and fan-funded platform FANFUNDER all made it through to the final stage, though only one could be crowned the victor.

After pitching their startups to Malte Barth, Founding Partner of BITKRAFT, Fabio La Franca, Investment Director at Station12, David Gowans, Head of Creative Technologies at Barclays, Patrick Mahoney, CEO of Nations Ventures (which launched last week too), and Dave Martin, Director of Esports Global, one company, in particular, stood out the most.

TEAMS, the platform that allows players to find like-minded individuals, has been named the winner of The Clutch Digital. After much deliberation, the five judges unanimously agreed that TEAMS solved a very particular and prominent pain point in the esports industry.

Martin commented on the choice: “What was universal amongst the judges is that we felt TEAMS had a scalable offer that brought a potential real return to publishers which enables individuals to stay within the titles and find new friend groups. The growth opportunity is phenomenal.”

Sam Cooke, Managing Director and Co-founder of Esports Insider, also spoke on the decision: “This is what The Clutch Digital is all about, allowing promising startups to present their vision and product to people of all positions in the industry – especially investors and those who’ve been successful in business. TEAMS’ offering is undeniable, so a huge congratulations are in order to the team over there for this victory, though it must be made clear that all competitors show a lot of potential. Thank you to the startups and judges for taking part!”

Ryan Scollan, CEO of G-Science – the winning startup of The Clutch 2019 at ESI London – added: “I want to congratulate and pass on the honour of the title ‘The Clutch Champions’ to TEAMS. Just remember, with great power comes great responsibility. Good luck!”