Elysian Park Ventures, the venture capital arm of the Los Angeles Dodgers, will lead a $30.5 million Series B investment in high school esports company PlayVS. The round also includes new investments from Adidas, Samsung NEXT, and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
In April, PlayVS secured a partnership with the National Federation of State High School Associations. PlayVS is currently in the midst of a League of Legends trial season featuring high school esports teams across five states as part of a partnership with Riot Games. With the new Series B funding, Play VS competition will expand into seven additional states and add three more video game titles, according to Sports Business Daily.
“We have an opportunity to engage students in the life of the school with an activity that they might already be participating in on their own,” said Dr. Karissa Niehoff, NFHS executive director, in a press release. “Now, we bring that interest and activity together to combine it with all of the elements of sport that are so special: teamwork, camaraderie, collaboration, storylines, excitement and connection to a group.”
Founded in 2017, PlayVS’s software platform integrates into partnered games to schedule matches, track player statistics, and report wins and losses. A $64 fee is required for each student to participate in the current PlayVS trial season. PlayVS plans to launch its inaugural official League of Legends season in February, which will expand to include new teams from the Alabama High School Athletic Association, Mississippi High School Activities Association, and the Texas Charter School Academic and Athletic League according to the NFHS press release.
“We’d love to incorporate more games like ‘League of Legends’ that are multi-player, real-time, strategy games,” said Delane Parnell, CEO and founder of PlayVS. “This allows students to rely on one another as teammates and use critical-thinking skills to make game-time decisions. We have some partnerships with other game developers in the works but can’t reveal anything just yet.”
SportTechie Takeaway
The additional $30.5 million in funding for PlayVS comes quickly after the company raised a Series A funding round in June that included NFL players Russell Okung and Kelvin Beachum, and former NBA All-Star Baron Davis. PlayVS also has plans to bring esports competition to the NCAA collegiate level. However, PlayVS CEO Delane Parnell explained in April that the company’s scholastic competition will not support the first-person shooter genre of games such as Overwatch or Call of Duty.