If you are into eSports chances are you have heard of Unikrn, the eSports betting company founded by Rahul Sood who wanted to bring betting on eSports to the masses. He started the company back in 2014 and got famous investors like Mark Cuban, Ashton Kutcher, Elisabeth Murdoch and others on board the team early.
Their vision for their idea was good, the website and service created even better and many thought this was gonna be the next big thing in gambling. There was only one problem that it seems they had forgotten: gambling in the US is illegal (in most states anyways). This major setback was something they had to deal with, and Unikrn seemed to disappear as quickly as they emerged.
Then, after a while with seemingly no news, Unikrn comes out with the news that they looking to raise $100 million through an initial coin offering (ICO). These coins, called UnikoinGold (UKG), are to be used exclusively on their betting platform and are based on the Ethereum platform.
To buy UKG, you need to pay using Ethereum (ETH), and 1 ETH will net you 866 UKG during the presale.
The sale opened up on 16th of September for invites only, then opened for the public on 24th of September. Initially they sold almost 58,000 ETH (approximately $16.7 million) before it was opened to the public, and the days after saw a big spike in sales which has slowed off a little since then.
As of writing this, they have raise over 102,000 ETH, which converts to almost $35 million. Not too shabby, but well off their mark of $100 million.
A couple of questions that have been popping up regarding this has been how and why. How are they able to raise this much money, and why are they doing it through an ICO?
Many ask themselves how they were able to raise $35 million in their new coin already, even before the site has launched and is open to the public? The simple answer to that is that they ones that are buying the UnikoinGold right now are mostly investors and not bettors. There were already raised about $15 million in presale of the UKG, where investors like Mark Cuban, Blockchain Capital, Pantera Capital and other investors were the big buyers.
The ones who have been buying in after it opened up to the public as well are likely to be investors and speculators from the blockchain world looking to jump on the next ICO hype train out there. Now I believe that Unikrn is more than just a flash in the pan, they are still riding the coattail of the current cryptocurrency craze.
This is partly answered above: there seems to be a lot of craze around ICOs and cryptocurrency in general, and doing through those channels will get you a synergy effect most likely.
Although that reason is a good one, it is unlikely to be the main reason for why Unikrn has gone through this route. The likelier answer is that they prefer to keep their own currency as to not have to deal with the hassle of having 100s of different currencies on site and banks from different regions and countries. All this would simplify their business immensely and remove one problem many other online bookmakers have today.
The problem when you’re dealing with banks is that none of these guys are easy to work with. You’re dealing with 20 different currencies, you’re dealing across borders. There’s no other reason to go this route other than to circumvent banking. Quote: Reuters.com
Still the ICO seems to have been a great success so far. It has not reached the $100 million it set as their limit, but I think they are more than happy with the amount they have received so far. Now it only remains to see if the final product is as good as their ICOs.
