Konrad Wasiela, CEO of ESE Entertainment Inc., was recently a guest on Benzinga’s All-Access.
ESE Entertainment is a technology company that maximizes new user flow for gaming companies. ESE also operates its own e-commerce channels, esports teams and gaming league. The company was founded in 2019 by former professional football player Konrad Wasiela.
Mr. Waseila spoke about his company’s success and the exciting plans he has for its future in 2024.
ESE Entertainment is a technology company that maximizes new user flow for gaming companies. ESE also operates its own e-commerce channels, esports teams and gaming league. The company was founded in 2019 by former professional football player Konrad Wasiela.
Mr. Waseila spoke about his company’s success and the exciting plans he has for its future in 2024.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Conrad, thank you so much for joining us.
00:07 - Likewise, man.
00:08 It's great to be on.
00:09 I'm fired up that you got a eSports background.
00:12 - Oh, it's gonna be a great conversation for sure,
00:14 but I gotta know, how'd I do on the last name?
00:16 - Perfect.
00:18 - That's what I thought.
00:19 - Which is shocking, 'cause
00:21 (laughing)
00:22 typically nobody does well.
00:24 - I watched three different interviews
00:26 that you did on YouTube just to be like,
00:27 all right, they all use three different variations,
00:29 but look, man, it'll be a fun conversation.
00:32 I got a chance to check out your website,
00:34 and see what you guys have been doing as well.
00:36 But before we get into the nitty gritty,
00:38 just give us a heads up and an overview
00:40 of what it is that your company does.
00:41 - Yeah, absolutely.
00:42 So, I really tried to simplify it
00:45 because sometimes gaming and particularly eSports
00:48 get a little bit complex,
00:50 but we really position it with two very simple pillars.
00:54 One is our production arm, when I mean production.
00:57 So, when a big game developer like Electronic Arts
01:01 or Riot Games wants to produce an eSports tournament,
01:06 we do that entire production.
01:07 So, teams come into our studios,
01:10 we produce the whole event,
01:12 and we distribute that on many different channels
01:14 across the world.
01:15 - Yeah, it's all--
01:16 - The second pillar is more on the technology side,
01:20 and that's where we also help big game developers
01:24 acquire new users.
01:26 So, when they're launching a game,
01:28 we go out and use our proprietary technology
01:31 to go and acquire new users
01:34 so that they come to the game, to come to the platform.
01:37 - Yeah, I saw you guys work with,
01:39 you've got Riot Games there,
01:40 you've got EA, like you mentioned,
01:41 they've got EAFC now, which is big,
01:44 and we'll see how the EMLS world kind of goes ahead
01:47 and gets things started as well.
01:49 I wanna go ahead and talk about the news that you dropped
01:51 about a couple of weeks ago,
01:53 which was you guys announced your crypto business
01:55 with Metapro, a little different from esports,
01:58 what's that all about?
02:00 - Yeah, I mean, the reality of the esports world
02:05 and ecosystem is it's integrated into gaming by and large,
02:10 and the crossover with crypto and gaming,
02:13 it's always been a perfect marriage.
02:16 I think, especially with the basically bull run of crypto
02:20 over the past couple of years,
02:22 it's just gonna be more and more integrated into gaming,
02:25 into streaming, and we wanted to find a partner
02:28 that we could really integrate well with,
02:30 and that we trusted,
02:31 and that we could bring to those big game developers
02:34 and build on for the future.
02:36 - And of course, you know, this is publicly,
02:39 you know, released information,
02:41 so I'm happy to just talk about
02:42 how you have confidence in the company
02:44 as you went ahead and purchased over 300,000 shares yourself
02:48 so that's a bit of a vote of confidence,
02:49 putting money where your mouth is.
02:51 You also went ahead and had a couple of other news
02:53 in terms of your working with different titles
02:55 and everything else.
02:57 What are your thought processes on the landscape
02:59 of esports in the moment, right?
03:01 You've seen and noticed so many individuals being laid off,
03:05 like you have Overwatch that's taking a little bit of a hit,
03:07 you just had CDL with Microsoft there
03:09 that kind of took a little bit of hit.
03:11 The season's still continuing,
03:12 but this esports winter is kind of continuing
03:16 into the spring.
03:17 What are your thoughts on how your business
03:19 is strong enough with the foundation
03:22 to kind of weather the storm here?
03:24 - Yeah, I think it's very important to note
03:27 that we are integrated with the game developers
03:30 and game publishers.
03:32 - Got it.
03:32 - So those are the most stable assets
03:35 in the whole gaming ecosystem,
03:38 and that's who we're partnered with.
03:40 As it pertains to esports, it's here to stay, right?
03:45 And there's been some up and downs to your point,
03:47 but it's here to stay.
03:49 People just game casually.
03:52 It's a new way of communication, right?
03:54 It's the new version of live streaming,
03:57 everyone's multitasking.
03:59 I think esports really transformed,
04:01 of course, is the professional levels,
04:04 but there's also amateur too.
04:05 And I think that's gonna continue to actually grow
04:09 over the next couple of years.
04:11 And obviously we know the power of gaming.
04:13 You see juggernauts like Microsoft buying Activision.
04:18 They're not doing this for no reason.
04:20 There's a clear path of why they're doing this.
04:23 And now, later on, crypto
04:26 and all these other exciting things,
04:28 this thing's here to stay and it's gonna continue to grow.
04:31 - Yeah, and especially with, like I said,
04:32 my experiences with the sports side of the esports world.
04:35 So you had the NBA 2K League just announced yesterday,
04:38 I believe, about how they're gonna have NBA players
04:40 and celebrities interact at the All-Star Game
04:43 that's coming up here in a couple of weeks
04:44 with the video game aspect of it as well.
04:47 So you have a lot of pros that you've seen
04:49 that stream the video games and they're off time,
04:51 that kind of get into that realm itself as well.
04:55 What are some opportunities that you see for your company
04:58 down the road here?
04:59 What's interesting, what I like that you mentioned
05:00 is that you're working with the developers
05:02 and not necessarily the esports themselves.
05:05 'Cause the games are gonna be released no matter what.
05:07 - Exactly, exactly.
05:09 - We'll kind of go up and down,
05:10 but what are some things that our viewers
05:12 and potential investors can kind of look forward to
05:15 in terms of what's down the pipeline?
05:16 - To be honest, I think you hit the nail on the head.
05:19 The convergence of now traditional sports
05:24 and gaming and esports is coming to the forefront, right?
05:29 And you see guys like Cristiano Ronaldo
05:31 creating his own soccer game.
05:34 You got NBA players integrating, you have NHL players.
05:37 We get calls from all the big leagues around the world
05:39 that wanna integrate and create that ecosystem
05:42 for their fan base.
05:43 Secondly to that, a lot of these players
05:47 are from a different generation.
05:48 I'm a former pro athlete
05:50 and we actually gamed a lot in the off season.
05:53 But this next generation's literally next level, right?
05:56 These guys are born with streaming, social media,
06:00 gaming and the whole nine yards, right?
06:02 So it's really interesting to see what happens,
06:06 but I think there's gonna be a very close marriage
06:09 between traditional sports, music and gaming.
06:14 And I think that's gonna accelerate the growth,
06:16 but they're basically gonna be married in one,
06:18 in my opinion.
06:19 - Yeah, but when you mentioned Music Entertainment XSET,
06:21 which is an organization, they kind of come to mind
06:24 in terms of how they're looking to mesh
06:25 all those three things together.
06:27 Something that I know you guys like to go ahead and do
06:31 is bring new users and players
06:33 to the video game developers as well.
06:35 What's the strategy to do that?
06:37 Especially where sometimes parents have the stigma of like,
06:40 hey, stop playing video games,
06:42 which I know is less and less
06:44 as professional e-sports individuals make more money
06:48 than a lot of us do, right?
06:49 I mean, I've seen people make six figures
06:52 a million dollars a year just playing video games,
06:54 but what's the game plan to bring new users
06:57 to these developers that you're continuously working with?
06:59 - Yeah, we have a bunch of strategic partnerships
07:03 in that respect.
07:05 We've had the opportunity to partner with Opera,
07:08 the browser.
07:09 We partnered with them to create Opera GX,
07:14 a gaming only browser.
07:16 So that's where we get a ton of our traffic,
07:19 where we're able to acquire new users from that platform.
07:22 But generally speaking, ads throughout the internet,
07:26 traditional Mark tech type advertising
07:29 has been very fruitful for us.
07:32 And then obviously we're collecting a lot of data
07:35 and retargeting potential users for new games.
07:39 'Cause like you said,
07:40 there's a new game every quarter, every year, et cetera.
07:44 Yeah, so it's been really fruitful for us.
07:47 We're creating a tremendous database,
07:50 one of the biggest PC databases in the world now for gaming.
07:55 So it's been really fun developing that.
07:58 And it allows us actually to be very deliberate
08:02 with how we, and tactful of how we actually
08:06 approach marketing and make sure that we're compliant
08:09 with all the rules and regulations.
08:12 And like you said, we're huge,
08:14 like all the guys on our team are athletes
08:18 and we want everyone to get off the screens
08:20 as much as possible, but we also love gaming.
08:23 So there's always this funny balance between the two.
08:26 Yeah, now I know you've worked with a bunch
08:28 of different well-known brands, especially Red Bull.
08:32 I've actually worked with the Raptors Uprising GC
08:34 up in Toronto and we hosted a tournament
08:36 in their Red Bull gaming studio there.
08:38 That was a lot of fun.
08:39 The reason I bring that up is because you've got
08:41 another partnership that you went ahead
08:42 and announced recently, and that's with Samsung.
08:45 Give us a little bit of insight on that
08:47 and then we'll wrap things up.
08:48 Yeah, absolutely.
08:50 I mean, anytime Samsung is at your door,
08:53 it's one of the biggest groups in the world.
08:55 Yeah.
08:56 Yeah, so Riot Games has done a tremendous job
08:59 and have signed Samsung on a global basis,
09:01 as well as Kia Motors.
09:03 Right.
09:04 And since we're part of their global ecosystem,
09:07 specifically in Europe, we were able to also land
09:10 a contract with Samsung.
09:12 And we're just really excited to be put
09:15 in the same sentence as a juggernaut like Samsung.
09:18 Yeah, it's a great partnership for sure.
09:21 We've talked about a lot of things.
09:22 I wanna kind of give the floor to you
09:24 in case there's anything else that you wanted
09:25 to talk about, any topics that you wanted to discuss
09:28 that I didn't bring up.
09:29 Yeah, absolutely.
09:31 I think you could tell by the interview that I'm excited.
09:35 The industry's not going anywhere.
09:37 I think it's gonna boom over the next five to 10 years.
09:40 Yeah.
09:41 And just generally speaking, follow the story
09:43 because we got a ton of news coming out.
09:46 I would love to come back on and chat about the news
09:49 that's coming up, but yeah, stay tuned.
09:52 We have some really exciting things happening
09:54 in 2024.
09:55 Well, hey, I tell you what, we'll bring you on.
09:57 And if you need an on-air talent,
09:58 you go ahead and bring me on next time you have a production
10:00 'cause you guys are doing some great stuff.
10:01 Well, now I know.
10:02 Oh, yeah, listen, I'm in the email invite.
10:05 You got my info, but I'm excited, man.
10:07 Like Saudi Arabia, they're just investing heavy money
10:10 in the e-sports space, right?
10:12 We thought they were trying to take over soccer
10:14 with Ronaldo, Messi, and all the players, but like, man.
10:17 40 billion, 40 billion US dollars
10:20 is gonna be deployed into gaming.
10:22 That tells you everything.
10:24 These guys are all in on it.
10:25 It's insane.
10:27 I did DreamHack in Sweden with eFIBA.
10:29 It's like the World Cup of e-sports side of things.
10:33 And that was just incredible.
10:35 And of course they are like owning ELS,
10:37 which is now owned by Saudi Arabia, the investors there.
10:40 So like the amount of money that's being pumped up there,
10:42 especially where you have the Olympics,
10:44 where they're talking about having an e-sport Olympics
10:47 involved the same time you have
10:48 the real life sport Olympics as well.
10:51 So long story short, like I said,
10:52 you and I could talk about this for days and days,
10:53 but yes, you hit me up,
10:55 we'll hit you up when you get news, man.
10:57 Thank you so much for hanging out with us here today.
10:59 (upbeat music)
11:01 (upbeat music)