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- Black Ridge Acquisition Corp. finalized its acquisition of esports venue owner Allied Esports and World Poker Tour operator WPT Enterprises from Ourgame International.
- The newly formed Allied Esports Entertainment will trade on the NASDAQ with the ticker AESE and received $18M USD in investments including equity investments of $5M each by Simon Property Group and TV Azteca.
- Allied Esports Entertainment’s stock price dropped from $10.29 per share on Monday (August 5) to $4.42 on Friday at markets’ close.
On Friday, Black Ridge Acquisition Corp. (BRAC) announced that it had closed its business combination with esports property and content production facility owner Allied Esports and World Poker Tour operator WPT Enterprises following a special shareholders’ meeting. Both assets have been acquired from previous parent company Ourgame International. The company has been renamed to Allied Esports Entertainment Inc. in the process. The company will trade on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the ticker symbol AESE.
During the week of the shareholders’ special meeting and the finalization of the transaction on Friday, the stock price of AESE (formerly BRAC) plunged from $10.29 on August 5 to $4.42 at markets’ close on Friday.
Frank Ng, CEO at Ourgame International, will serve as CEO of Allied Esports Entertainment. Former BRAC Chairman and CEO Ken DeCubellis will serve as CFO for the combined company.
In its current 10-Q filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Allied Esports Entertainment states that Allied Esports and WPT Enterprises generated a net loss of $3.9M during the first quarter of 2019 and accumulated a net loss of $31M during 2018.
With the closing of this transaction, the previously announced equity investments of $5M each by Mexican media company TV Azteca and American property company Simon Property Group have been realized. Furthermore, Lyle Berman—a member of the board of directors of both Black Ridge Acquisition Corp. and its sponsor Black Ridge Oil & Gas and the largest shareholder of the sponsor—is investing $3M. In total, Allied Esports Entertainment is raising $18M, the source of the remaining $5M has not been disclosed by Allied Esports.
Besides their equity investments, TV Azteca and Simon Property will enter strategic alliances with Allied Esports. Simon Property will integrate gaming venues and production facilities in its properties around the USA. In May, TV Azteca and Allied already collaborated to create a PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS esports series called NATION VS NATION, which featured 40 competitors in a “USA vs. Mexico” format. The tournament’s Mexican broadcast reached over 2M viewers.
Going forward, TV Azteca and Allied will expand their work together through a number of projects including building a flagship esports venue in Mexico and creating a 24-hour digital esports channel for the Mexican market.
The Esports Observer reached out to Allied Esports Entertainment for further comment and clarification. We will update this article if we receive a response.
