Emerge Gaming builds traction in South Africa

Not even a month since listing on the ASX, Emerge Gaming (ASX: EM1) is looking to accelerate its market progress in South Africa – one of its key target markets.

Within a week, the former resources company converted to a gaming services provider launched its “cutting edge competition platform”, Arcade X.

Within a couple of weeks of going public, the ASX newcomer has signed a partnership with Detonator Media Group in South Africa to facilitate the launch of Arcade X and its inherent corporate tournament and sponsorship revenue model in South Africa.

Under this model, Emerge Gaming receives revenue for providing online gaming tournament hosting services while being able to attract gamer registrations at “no cost” as a result of corporate brands marketing the Arcade X platform on its behalf.

The revenue model offers corporates both highly popular triple-A eSports game titles under “Arcade X eSports”, as well as servicing casual games under “Arcade X Mobi”. The benefit to Emerge is revenue generation and “no cost” community growth on the Arcade X platform.

“The Arcade X platform provides Detonator with a unique digital media offering in which corporate brands can leverage their marketing spend to connect to enormous numbers of gamers. The technology is impressive and has huge global potential,” said Garth Rhoda, chief executive officer of Detonator.

Commercial sign of things to come

According to Emerge, this partnership establishes a “benchmark commercial relationship”, which can be rolled out as part of Arcade X’s international expansion and the build-up of gaming communities in multiple countries around the world.

Arcade X is Emerge Gaming’s core product — a flagship eSports platform and “lifestyle hub” that has hosted over 10,000 online tournaments.

The platform offers casual, intensive and social gamers the means to play nine different triple-A games titles and more than 300 additional games via their mobile phones, consoles and PCs.

Meanwhile, teaming up with Detonator could be a shrewd commercial move given that its team boasts over 60 years of media sales and marketing experience across various channels.

The team has worked in radio, magazines, television and digital – responsible for launching some of the world’s biggest media brands across Africa such as Facebook, LinkedIn, BBC, ESPN, Twitter, Fast Company, IGN and Twitch.

According to Emerge, Detonator’s clients include some of South Africa’s most valuable brands focused nationally and internationally and reaching almost 6 million millennials with regular gaming habits across mobile, tablets, XBOX, Play Station and streaming services.

The agency has assisted more than 90 brands to effectively target such audiences across Africa and Emerge is hopeful it can do the same for its own branded service, Arcade X.

“Detonator is an excellent marketing partner for Emerge in gaming in the African region. We are very excited to see how they will leverage their gaming marketing experience and reach to drive the success of the launch of our corporate tournament and sponsorship model,” Emerge chief executive officer Greg Stevens said.

By late afternoon trade, Emerge’s share price had risen more than 6% to A$0.017.