The Las Vegas-based gaming company has now raised $8 million to date
U.S.-based gaming startup Playtertainment has completed a $5 million funding round led by SDV Holdings and includes several top gaming executives. The company, whose goal is to create the largest, live, skill-based gaming platform in the world, has raised $8 million to date. Playtertainment was founded in 2019 by Jon Davidman and Cody Flaherty and their flagship app, Winner Winner, enables users to play real claw machines and ticket redemption-style arcade games through live video streaming.
Along with SDV, other notable investors in this fundraising round include Mitch Garber; Noel Hayden, founder of Gamesys; Matt Kalish, Jason Robbins and Paul Liberman, founders of DraftKings; Elad Cohen, who co-founded Playtech; Astralis Capital; and Sharp Alpha Advisors.
Winner Winner has over 1.2 million downloads since it hit the app stores in 2020 and is seeing 30+% quarterly growth. Players have played nearly 7 million games on the platform since their launch, and Winner Winner says they are shipping over 20,000 prizes to their players every month.
At the moment, Winner Winner provides access to 120+ of its claw and ticket redemption arcade games, housed in its Las Vegas studio, with multi-player, interactive games like mini-golf, mini-bowling, and many more coming soon. The app is currently available to players in the U.S. and UK, and the team is working on launching new markets in 2022. “These games are known worldwide and have proven demand across the globe. Our goal is to make them accessible to everyone, anywhere at any time,” said Flaherty. He also noted that they expect to have studios in Europe and Asia as they grow. Davidman said he and Flaherty helped pioneer what they call the Connected Reality gaming market, which brings live, physical, skill-based game play to mobile devices.
“Players can choose from hundreds of different games and thousands of prizes to play for,” Davidman noted. “With every win, players have the option to keep their prize or swap for tickets. Players collect tickets by winning or swapping and can redeem those tickets for even bigger prizes.” Davidman said that all prizes ship free for life for any player who has purchased a token pack.
“We’re really excited about the future,” Davidman exclaimed. “What we’re working on has never existed on a large scale, and we truly believe what we are building will change the way we think about physical games and competition. Through technology, we’re able to create a highly interactive, connected gaming experience that allows players to compete with real, physical games and get rewarded when they win those contests.”
“Winner Winner leverages proprietary technology to enable users to play live, physical arcade games from the comfort of their smartphones for the chance to win real prizes,” said Lloyd Danzig, managing partner of Sharp Alpha Advisors. “As compelling as the current game offerings are, we are even more excited about the underlying infrastructure that can support a robust content library, as well as skill-based, head-to-head competitions and social tournaments. Jon and Cody have built a company in Winner Winner that is advantageously positioned to provide the bridge between digital and physical worlds that is fundamental to the future of competitive entertainment.”
Prior to this round, Playtertainment had raised $3 million in seed funding.
