Rivalry raises $22M as Canadian betting firms gear up

If you had eyes and ears pointed towards all of the goings-on in the Senate this week, you might have missed some significant news from Rivalry Limited, which announced its latest round of funding raised $22 million.

That’s a tidy $44 million in funding secured by the Toronto-based esports betting and media company over the past year, as it plans to go public through a listing of its shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange before the end of the year. 

According to Rivalry CEO Steven Salz, who co-founded the company in 2018, it is now valued at $150 million. From Tim Casey of Forbes.com:

“Rivalry generates about 85 percent of its traffic and revenue through esports, primarily with people betting on events involving League of Legends, Counter-Strike and Dota 2. The remaining 15 percent comes from sports betting, which it introduced last year. Its most popular sports are basketball and soccer.”

Salz told reporters that Rivalry has been monitoring the journey of Bill C-218 through the Canadian political system and will be applying for an iGaming licence in Ontario. Like other companies in a brave new Canadian world, Rivalry says it will be investing in jobs and product.

Rivalry is set to join another Toronto company, Playmaker Capital, on the TSX.

Playmaker, co-created by Relay Ventures and Playmaker CEO Jordan Gnat, started trading on the venture exchange earlier this month.

And, while we’re talking about sports betting and esports, let us direct you to this recent interview with Enthusiast Gaming CEO Adrian Montgomery, whose company is being traded on both the TSX and NASDAQ. If you blinked, you may have missed another esports property now public, Wondr Gaming.

To round out our Bay Street Ballers section, there’s Harlo Equity Partners who lead the latest round of investment in B2B betting data startup Sports IQ. It’s a matter of time before another Harlo-backed esports company, Overactive Media Group goes public.