TORONTO, Jan. 23, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Enthusiast Gaming Holdings Inc. (TSXV: EGLX) (OTCQB: EGHIF) (“Enthusiast” or the “Company”), a digital media company building the largest community of authentic gamers, is excited to announce that it has entered into two agreements, one with Omnia Media Inc. (“Omnia”) to exclusively represent all of Omnia’s online gaming traffic in the United States, and another with Blue Ant Media (“Blue Ant”) pursuant to which Blue Ant will act as an exclusive advertising sales agent of Enthusiast in Canada. Omnia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Blue Ant.
Omnia is a leading global gaming YouTube platform which creates, manages and operates a multi-channel YouTube network that distributes premium, original content. With over 50 million monthly visitors1, 400 million subscribers across 900 channels, Omnia’s network is one of the most highly visited destinations on YouTube for video game related content. Under the representation agreement with Omnia, Enthusiast will act as Omnia’s exclusive United States sales agent for the sale of the advertising inventory across Omnia’s gaming media platform.
Omnia’s content platform that includes recently launched 'Sidemen Show' on YouTube Premium and animated series 'The Squad' a highly viewed Fortnite-inspired cartoon series on YouTube/Snapchat. Omnia's portfolio of content can also be found across Facebook, Amazon, Twitch, Roku, and a number of linear channels worldwide.
Enthusiast anticipates that the arrangement will grow its community, while diversifying the platform to include a large library of video content. The partnership is also an important step in Enthusiast’s long-term expansion strategy across North America and allows the company to focus on monetizing its growing US traffic base.
Menashe Kestenbaum, CEO of Enthusiast, commented, “We are excited to partner with Blue Ant Media, a recognized international digital media platform to represent its US advertising inventory. The beneficial partnership adds Omnia Media, a leading YouTube video gaming community to our platform and significantly increases our network’s reach. We are committed to expanding our US presence and are focused on developing our sales force to capitalize on our rapidly growing network.”
Austin Long, VP, Gaming Partnerships & Strategy of Omnia, added, “We will greatly benefit from Enthusiast’s sales experience in the media space, which will have a positive impact against our global inventory. We are hopeful that further synergies will come from our partnership between Omnia’s talent and content generation and Enthusiast’s website portfolio and live expo, EGLX. We look forward to partnering with the Enthusiast team.”
Enthusiast has entered into a second representation agreement to engage Blue Ant as the Company’s exclusive sales agent for the sale of Enthusiast’s Canadian consumer marketing opportunities, including digital inventory, consumer show sponsorships, content creation and experiential activations.
Kestenbaum continued, “Being backed by Blue Ant’s strong Canadian presence and talented sales force will help us drive advertising revenue across our Canadian digital inventory. Engaging Blue Ant is one part of our strategy to build out a strong, multileveled sales force in North America. We look forward to working with Blue Ant and the Omnia team moving forward.”
1 (Source: Google Ad manager, January 2019)
About Omnia
With over 400 million subscribers across 900 channels, Omnia has an impressive content slate including the recently launched 'Sidemen Show' on YouTube Premium and animated series 'The Squad' which is a highly viewed Fortnite-inspired cartoon series on YouTube/Snapchat. Omnia's portfolio of content can also be found across Facebook, Amazon, Twitch, Roku, and a number of linear channels globally. Visit www.omniamedia.com for more information.
About Blue Ant
Blue Ant Media is a privately held, international media company that creates and distributes content worldwide across streaming video, linear television, digital, magazines and live events. The company’s broadcasting business offers a robust portfolio of Canadian and New Zealand-based media brands. Content distribution, lead Blue Ant International, offers a catalogue of 2,200+ hours of premium, unscripted content worldwide, which includes the largest 4K natural history library on the market. Blue Ant Media is headquartered in Toronto (Canada), with offices located in Los Angeles (US), London (UK), and Auckland (NZ). blueantmedia.ca
About Enthusiast
Founded in 2014, Enthusiast is the fastest-growing online community of video gamers. Through the Company’s unique acquisition strategy, it has a platform of over 80 owned and affiliated websites and currently reaches over 75 million monthly visitors with its unique and curated content. Enthusiast also owns and operates Canada’s largest gaming expo, Enthusiast Gaming Live Expo, EGLX, (www.eglx.ca) with 55,000 attendees in 2018. For more information on the Company, visit www.enthusiastgaming.com.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Investor Relations:
Julia Becker, Head of Investor Relations & Marketing
jbecker@enthusiastgaming.com
(604) 785.0850
This news release contains certain statements that may constitute forward-looking information under applicable securities laws. All statements, other than those of historical fact, which address activities, events, outcomes, results, developments, performance or achievements that Enthusiast anticipates or expects may or will occur in the future (in whole or in part) should be considered forward-looking information. Such information may involve, but is not limited to, comments with respect to strategies, expectations, planned operations and future actions of the Company. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or statements formed in the future tense or indicating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" (or other variations of the forgoing) be taken, occur, be achieved, or come to pass. Forward-looking information is based on currently available competitive, financial and economic data and operating plans, strategies or beliefs as of the date of this news release, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Enthusiast to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors may be based on information currently available to Enthusiast, including information obtained from third-party industry analysts and other third-party sources, and are based on management's current expectations or beliefs regarding future growth, results of operations, future capital (including the amount, nature and sources of funding thereof) and expenditures. Any and all forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Trading in the securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
The securities of the Corporation have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirement. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.