TORONTO, Ontario, March 7,2019 – Enthusiast Gaming Holdings Inc. (TSXV: EGLX) (OTCQB: EGHIF), (“Enthusiast” or the “Company”), a gaming company building the largest community of authentic gamers, is excited to announce that it will be launching its own Esports tournament and entertainment series, called “EGLX Rising Stars”. The series will leverage the distribution of its online network of over 75M website visitors, the additional 50M YouTube visitors, and the tens of thousands of attendees at its live video game expo, EGLX. The tournament will begin this summer and end with grand finals at EGLX 2019, on October 18-20, 2019 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (“MTCC”), downtown Toronto. The event will be broadcast live and will be released by episodic video after the finals.
The unique series aims to discover up and coming talent in the Esports industry and follow their personal and professional journey as they compete to be recognized as the next big Esports superstar and win a large grand prize. Enthusiast currently has over 400 major gaming influencers within its online communities and will invite some of its top talent to lead the teams of aspiring participants as they battle to gain the same notoriety as the celebrities. The series will capture footage of the Esports professionals as they interact with the Rising Stars for the viewing enjoyment of the entire Esports industry. Fans will be able to watch the journey unfold as episodic content on Enthusiast Gaming’s online network, live streams during the event, and in the audience at EGLX in Toronto.
Menashe Kestenbaum, CEO of Enthusiast commented, “Our vision has always been to provide a home and community to dedicated lifestyle gamers. Until now we’ve done that separately through our online communities as well as our live events. We have now made our first major step towards bringing our online and offline communities together in an integrated, strategic relationship. With 2019 now projected to be the first billion-dollar year for Esports and attract brands across all industries, EGLX Rising Stars will provide another platform for Brands targeting the Esports Industry.”
As Esports popularity and viewership continue to grow, Enthusiast continues to invest and focus its efforts on providing a place for Esports enthusiasts to discover content and join like-minded communities. Recent acquisitions of the digital properties Daily Esports and Operation Sports, as well as hosting one of the largest Esports competitor events at EGLX 2018 established Enthusiast Gaming as a leading provider of Esports content. The Rising Stars series is a continuation of its 2019 Esports growth plans to focus its efforts on providing Esports enthusiasts with both the content and the community to follow, discover and experience the growing Esports industry.
The traditional focus of Esports events is limited to only broadcasting the live competitive match with commentators. Through Enthusiast’s content distribution platforms, The Rising Stars series will disrupt the current model, and include entertaining online and live content, such as, player narratives and storylines; behind the scenes footage of influencer personalities; and an overall unique spectator experience. The company intends for the content to be enjoyed and viewed beyond the event itself, throughout the year.
Earlier this week, Enthusiast announced that EGLX will take place in Toronto October 18-20, 2019 with nearly double the square footage of its prior event. The EGLX Rising Stars series will be a major focus of this year’s event. Plans were also announced to expand EGLX’s footprint into the United States, which will allow US Esports competitors to participate within its Rising Stars tournament series in 2020. The company will provide further updates in the coming months.
About Enthusiast Gaming
Founded in 2014, Enthusiast is the fastest-growing online community of video gamers. Through the Company’s unique acquisition strategy, it has a platform of over 80 owned and affiliated websites and currently reaches over 75 million monthly visitors with its unique and curated content. Enthusiast also owns and operates Canada’s largest gaming expo, Enthusiast Gaming Live Expo, EGLX, (www.eglx.ca) with over 55,000 people attending in 2018. For more information on the Company, visit www.enthusiastgaming.com.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Investor Relations:
Julia Becker
Head of Investor Relations & Marketing
[email protected]
(604) 785.0850
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This news release contains certain statements that may constitute forward-looking information under applicable securities laws. All statements, other than those of historical fact, which address activities, events, outcomes, results, developments, performance or achievements that Enthusiast anticipates or expects may or will occur in the future (in whole or in part) should be considered forward-looking information. Such information may involve, but is not limited to, comments with respect to strategies, expectations, planned operations and future actions of the Company. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as “plans”, “expects”, “is expected”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “forecasts”, “intends”, “anticipates”, or “believes” or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or statements formed in the future tense or indicating that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might” or “will” (or other variations of the forgoing) be taken, occur, be achieved, or come to pass. Forward-looking information is based on currently available competitive, financial and economic data and operating plans, strategies or beliefs as of the date of this news release, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Enthusiast to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors may be based on information currently available to Enthusiast, including information obtained from third-party industry analysts and other third-party sources, and are based on management’s current expectations or beliefs regarding future growth, results of operations, future capital (including the amount, nature and sources of funding thereof) and expenditures. Any and all forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Trading in the securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative.
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