Gaming Startup Eterlast Raises $4.5m to Bring NFTs to Sports Fans

Gaming startup Eterlast wants to bring NFTs to rugby and boxing fans through branded games.
It aims to make games that allow users to trade digital tokens that in turn generate real-world rewards.
Check out the 19-slide pitch deck it used to raise its $4.5 million seed round.
Web3 startup Eterlast has raised $4.5 million in seed funding to level up its gaming studio built to bring sports fans into the metaverse.
The London-headquartered startup, which is emerging out of stealth mode as a spinout from the venture studio of Founders Factory – an accelerator and fund – is betting on digital collectibles known as NFTs offering sports communities a fresh way to engage with teams and personalities online.
The startup, founded by CEO Joan Roure, brands itself as a Web3 gaming company to mark itself out as being part of a community of tech entrepreneurs rallying around crypto, blockchain, and associated technologies as being the founding blocks of a next-generation internet.
At present, the startup is working with teams and leaders in rugby and boxing – having struck a partnership with Queensberry Promotions, the promoter behind boxers such as Tyson Fury – to build branded games involving NFTs from these sports.
In December, for instance, it is launching a game called House of Boxing, that will allow fans to purchase select highlights from fights including boxers such as Mike Tyson.
Soon after the launch, the startup plans on creating a boxing game that pits players against each other, with an idea in play that allows collectibles bought on the platform to be used as in-game assets, which can also unlock real-world rewards.
The funding comes at a tough time for the crypto industry, which has suffered heavy losses this year as rising interest rates has led investors to walk away from more speculative technologies such as NFTs.
However, Eterlast sees NFTs built for sports communities as being relatively protected from the bear market.
In a blogpost last month, the startup acknowledged that 2022 has been “a bit of a rough year for crypto” but believes the downturn has shaken out some of the fraudulent NFT projects that became rampant during the sector’s bull run.
For Eterlast CEO Roure, NFTs are not to be understood as a “product”, but instead as “a technology that enhances the experience of current use cases around gaming, collecting, and experiencing live events”.
“We are embarked on a mission, building the bridge for the next billion fans to enter Web3,” he said. “We are targeting to consolidate global fragmented sports that tap into hundreds of millions of fans that enjoy their sport on a regular basis.”
Eterlast raised the funds from several investors in a round led by Supernode Global with participation from Play Ventures, Active Partners, Founders Factory, Stake Capital and Immutable X.
Check out its pitch deck: