SA国际传媒

, an e-sports mobile app that allows gamers to compete for money, has raised $3.1 million in a seed round led by , the company told SA国际传媒 News exclusively.

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Notably, NBA player Victor Oladipo (Indiana Pacers) and the NFL鈥檚 Denzel Ward (Cleveland Browns) also participated in the financing, which brings Play One Up鈥檚 total raised to date to $4 million, according to the company.

founded Play One Up in 2018 to give XBOX and PlayStation gamers a way to compete for money while playing Madden NFL, NBA2K, FIFA and Fortnite. He describes it as a mobile third-party facilitator that essentially 鈥渉elps gamers earn income through video game skills through the tap of a button” via its app, One Up.

Anyone 18 and older can sign up to play and an on-demand assistant is matched with an opponent 鈥渨ithin minutes,鈥� Pitts explained to me. The players can agree on how much they want to wager for any given game, and then Play One Up facilitates the action.

鈥淎ction is governed on the front end so that we know both players have funds. That way, we can assure that no one gets cheated and everyone gets paid when they win,鈥� Pitts said. 鈥淓ach player has an escrow account that money is placed into when they win, and they can cash out at any point.鈥�

Play One Up鈥檚 proprietary patent pending technology determines the winner based on a variety of factors.

Currently, Cleveland, Ohio-based Play One Up has 11 employees but plans to expand to 26 by year鈥檚 end. On its team are former engineers and designers from Google, Facebook and Spotify, according to Pitts.

鈥淲e鈥檙e looking to hire engineers and support people, as action has been through the roof during the COVID-19 pandemic,鈥� he told SA国际传媒 News. 鈥淲e鈥檙e opening up tournaments, expanding our product, and rolling out on Android. So there鈥檚 going to be a whole new group of users.鈥�

Today, Play One Up has over 130,000 registered users, up from about 15,000 to 20,000 users a year ago. In April, it facilitated about 30,000 head-to-head matchups, and it鈥檚 doing over $1 million a month in wager volume.

鈥淥ver half of our users have signed up during the pandemic over the last 90 days,鈥� Pitts told SA国际传媒 News. 鈥�2020 has been stellar for us. We are evolving and growing in a very organic fashion.鈥�

Play One Up charges a 15 percent booking fee for all the action on its platform. Skilled gaming is not legal in about nine states.

In conjunction with the funding news, Play One Up has signed Slam Dunk contest champion Derek Jones to an influencer deal.

鈥淗e鈥檒l be conducting tournaments through our platform, and we鈥檒l be providing the technology and infrastructure to make that happen,鈥� Pitts said.

Photo caption: Brandon Pitts, founder of Play One Up. Photo courtesy of Play One Up.

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