FaZe Clan, the massively fashionable conglomerate of professional avid gamers, streamers, and on-line personalities, is attempting to reinvent itself after a catastrophic IPO and up to date purge of a majority of its members. It’s now partnering with DraftKings to do this, taking $11 million from the sports activities betting app to discover new “alternatives in content material.”
FaZe Clan was bought by GameSquare earlier this 12 months, a holding firm centered on monetizing the eye of younger audiences. At the moment, it re-launched the content material makers as FaZe Media, a “creator-led IP and web media firm” that appears like it will likely be doing the identical factor it’s at all times carried out, simply with extra DraftKings sponsorships. I can really feel the model synergies activating already.
Whereas FaZe Clan members Richard “FaZe Banks” Bengtson and Yousef “FaZe Apex” Abdelfattah might be in cost, the brand new firm is owned completely by outsiders. GameSquare maintains a 51 % stake whereas DraftKings co-founder Matt Kalish controls the remaining. “Anybody that’s really tapped in can agree, this was lengthy overdue,” Bengtson stated in a press release. “We’ve prioritized just about completely on making a enjoyable atmosphere that we (as FaZe members) can discover ardour in, be enthusiastic about, sit up for.”
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This monetary makeover comes after years of FaZe Clan being the poster baby for a way firms battle to show web clout into massive bucks. Regardless of the large followings of its members and the success of its esports groups, an IPO pitched as a billion-dollar windfall as a substitute imploded in a penny inventory catastrophe with FaZe Clan spending most of final 12 months liable to getting delisted from the NASDAQ inventory change.
This shedding streak bolstered a story that FaZe Clan had faltered by transferring away from its roots, getting too company, and handing over an excessive amount of energy to soulless fits. The entire thing exploded in a notably ugly controversy after Stranger Issues actor turned Twitch streamer Grace Van Dien was revealed as a brand new member of the creator group in Might 2023. It provoked a misogynistic backlash that led Van Dien to exit the group days later.
Extra not too long ago, FaZe Clan culled the vast majority of its members final month in an effort to reboot its attraction. “I can’t apologize for doing what feels proper,” Bengtson stated on the time. “I’ve seen FaZe mismanaged and abused and fucking the life sucked out of it for therefore lengthy that, like, all I need to do is, I need to see the model run, and win, and thrive as a result of it deserves to. It’s modified so many fucking folks’s lives. It’s a fucking tremendous essential factor. FaZe belongs in historical past books and in a museum, not on a bag of fucking pizza rolls.”
As an alternative of pizza rolls, possibly now FaZe Clan might be related to a “By no means Overlook” 9/11 parlay to win money whereas honoring first-responders.
