Hey. You know who Zwift are. Well, they’ve now got US$120m to invest after an injection of funds from Highland Europe (of eGym fame); True (a Ribble backer); Novator; and Causeway Media, the latter of whom back eSports companies.
And that is what the investment is for. A super-huge $120m push into eSports and Running.
Some factettes mentioned in the despatches surrounding this large chunk of money:
- 70% of Zwifters are non-US
- The Zwift platform is attractive to investors as it is scalable
- Mark Cavendish says of Zwift, “I genuinely enjoy it”
What we might see
- Pro teams battling it out virtually
What to bear in mind. Of course now Zwift may not have to rely on subscriptions. Someone will have to change the cashflow spreadsheet to include monies from eTV deals.
I can’t say I will ever plan to watch one of these events but 10 years ago I wouldn’t watch any of the TdF and now I watch it for days on end…admittedly mostly for the commentary. So, who knows?
If this eSport is to become professionalised then I wonder what protocols there will be to ensure that the bikes are equal? ie all the same power meters, in the same temperature room and all calibrated in the same way. Also, this is going to absolutely deliver live power data of every rider for the entire race. Will we ever see ‘A’ team members racing or will the teams want to retain at least some secrecy for their top riders.
Source: Forbes
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