Whether they know it or not, people have been engaging in gamification for years. Most people today are active consumers of games, mostly on their smartphones and tablets. It’s what we all reach for when waiting we’re waiting at a restaurant or idling at the drive-thru. Once everyone knows it’s game on, no one wants to miss out on anything and people are hooked.
But GameOn Entertainment Technologies (GET:CSE;GMETF:OTC;9E7:FSE) founder and CEO Matt Bailey knows that successful gamification isn’t that simple. The key to successfully "gamifying" content, Bailey says, is to understand that "playing to win isn't the true motivation that fuels fandom."
The superfan's real reward is the recognition, the status they can earn in their community.
Technical analyst Clive Maund is a fan: “On its latest six-month chart we can see that, after it came to market at the very end of May or the start of June, the price plunged before drifting lower still to settle into a base pattern that started to form at the end of August."
“GameOn Entertainment Technologies looks like an immediate buy.” —Clive Maund
Maund continued, "This base pattern has turned out to be a Double Bottom and with the price starting to ascend out of the second low of this pattern, and downside volume dropping out this month resulting in the On-balance Volume line climbing in a positive manner, it looks like it is ready to begin a new bull market.”
“GameOn Entertainment Technologies looks like an immediate buy here,” Maund concluded.
GameOn has closed deals with five partners, expects to transition from pre-revenue to revenue in Q421, then scale up in 2022.
As CEO Matt Bailey explained to Streetwise Reports in an interview last week, GameOn offers white-labeled B2B technology to content providers "to make their content more engaging, social, and monetizable." Its software integrates with providers' platforms to enable and encourage fans to connect, compete, be social, and collect rewards as they watch, play, attend, or acquire collectibles – and, crucially, to enjoy recognition from their peers and high status in the community when they succeed.
After raising nearly CA$6 million in pre-IPO financing in March, the three-year-old company promptly went public on the CSE (Canadian Securities Exchange), trading under the symbol GET. Over the last few months GameOn has closed deals with 10 large partners and expects to transition from pre-revenue to revenue in Q4 2021, then scale up in 2022.
GameOn's earnings come through two channels. The company makes licensing deals with partners that don’t use their engagement platforms to generate revenue. And it makes revenue sharing arrangements with those that do.
So What Does This Mean for Investors?
Streetwise spoke with Nick Chen, CFA and Partner at Hydra Capital Partners in Toronto, to discuss why GameOn offers unique potential for growth.
Chen’s specialty is scoping out below-the-radar microcap companies that show high-growth returns potential of 10 times or more. He looks specifically at opportunities for investment in early-stage companies that have the potential to be game changers in their industry.
As to whether he saw this potential in GameOn, Chen broke it down for Streetwise:
"What GameOn does best is gamifying entertainment, and investing in the company allows me to get into a very good sub-sector at a very low valuation."
For the full article with Nick Chen, check this space on October 19.
Streetwise also caught up with NYC-based private investment firm Long State to learn why they put their money on GameOn.
“Our investors are primarily in the real-estate business, and they want their first money investments into other areas,” explains Long State principal Philip Ho, who has over 25 years of corporate finance, private equity, and investment management experience. “We manage that portion of their wealth, driven primarily by growth sectors around the world,” he explained.
The conversation turned to GameOn.
“I do believe Matt can build the company,” said Jessie Chen, who is a director at Long State. “The business model is focused on licensing and revenue sharing — and they already have big-name partnerships. We expect to see revenue starting Q4 this year,” Chen told Streetwise.
Streetwise will publish the full article with Long State on October 21 and add a live link here.
GameOn Tech’s Breakthrough Product Line-Up
GameOn's first release was a prediction game product. In a new build-out of this technology, GameOn just announced a partnership that will enhance the experience for fans who follow the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men's T20 World Cup, which hit the pitch on Sunday October 17. The collaboration with MX Player and Willow TV will allow MX Player's 280 million monthly viewers in India to make predictions on outcomes and events, with winners moving up the leaderboard.
Meanwhile, in North America, the Willow TV Cricket Predictor is available to about 3.5 million homes across the continent.
While GameOn focused on sports initially, the market extends to TV networks (“The Real Housewives” is a partner), news, elections, mobile games, fantasy sports, and beyond – including one of today's hottest markets: digital collectibles, or NFTs.
In fact, building on their initial product, GameOn's second release is an NFT predictor, a first-of-its-kind product that adds a layer of gamification to trading digital collectible properties. Users can buy and sell NFTs and use them as pieces in a prediction game. If the league or network doesn't have its own marketplace for digital collectibles, GameOn, in alliance with its partnership with NFT platform Blockparty, provides them with a space where they can sell.
"TV's becoming the second screen, the third screen, or even the 'never' screen." —CEO Matt Bailey
"Our predictive gaming platform that's built, tested, and in the market, allows the gamification of NFTs and helps IP holders create a more rewarding, authentic, and engaging experience for their fans whether it's for sports, TV, or live events," Bailey said in the press release announcing the Blockparty partnership.
In an October 13 news release, GameOn announced their team-up with Chibi Dinos, a new NFT project launched by 24-year-old entrepreneur, Sean Kelly. Basically, the Chibi experience is the modern-day equivalent of collecting baseball cards, if baseball cards were digital and merged with anime dinosaurs in sports team jerseys.
GameOn's third product, Quests, encourages fans to take specific digital or real-life actions (like view game highlights, or buy a team jersey) — and when they do, fans receive a reward.
What all of these products have in common is that, in each, fans are living within the partner network's environment, whether it's a TV network app or a sports league's website or any other platform.
In short, the B2B tech company aims "to power the most watched content in the world with the most innovative fan engagement technologies," said Bailey.
Why the need for these new engagement drivers?
Bailey puts it simply: "TV's becoming the second screen, the third screen, or even the 'never' screen."
Solving Audience Engagement in the Digital Era
In an interview with Streetwise, Board Chairman J Moses explained, the answer to dwindling audiences for live events is to "engage the audience in a way other than through linear programming."
“One of the advantages of being a public stock is that your value is determined by the market, which makes it easier to buy. Right now, large tech companies are buying smaller tech companies, and [share prices] are largely being driven by acquisitions…I believe [GameOn] will be a very attractive M&A target.” — J Moses
And if anyone knows how to get people’s attention, it’s Moses, who has clocked 25 years in the gaming business, having helmed BMG Games when it released the original Grand Theft Auto. (For the full article with J, check this space on October 20.)
Video game investment firm V2 Games acquired GameOn's assets in Dec. 2020, naming as CEO founder Bailey and rebranding GameOn as GameOn Entertainment Technologies. Incubator Victory Square Technologies is its biggest shareholder. Moses was named Chairman of the Board in February of this year.
Bailey described the partnership as "a no-brainer. Our technologies and teams are complementary, and their clients are some of the world's biggest sports and entertainment brands." Complementary because GameOn's platform is structured to function as a true product and technology partner from end to end. Partnering with a developer like LiveLike will help both companies expand their offerings and their reach.The company recently announced a technology partnership with LiveLike, a tech pioneer offering developer tools (SDKs) to many large sports organizations. The leagues use these tools to create integrated digital watch parties, chat spaces, leaderboards, trivia, quizzes, and other interactive experiences.
GameOn’s partnership with tech pioneer LiveLike is “a no-brainer.”
Other companies in the space, Bailey says, just focus on "playing and winning, playing and winning." And that won’t produce the level of engagement and attention that content providers need to grow.
At the time of writing, GameOn’s market capitalization is at CA$18.88 million with 61,696536M shares outstanding. Share prices have been fluctuating in the range of CA$0.27 to $0.35. The 52-week high was CA $0.98 as of Oct. 18, 2021.
Disclosure:
1) Jon Sobel compiled this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an independent contractor. He or members of his household own securities of the following companies mentioned in the article: None. He or members of his household are paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. His company has a financial relationship with the following companies referred to in this article: None.
2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: GameOn Entertainment Technologies. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.
3) The article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.
4) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the decision to publish an article until three business days after the publication of the article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of GameOn Entertainment Technologies, a company mentioned in this article.
