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American media company Advance Publications has acquired a significant stake in the game market analytics company Newzoo. The investment will go toward Newzoo’s ongoing global expansion, helping the Amsterdam-based firm solidify its industry-leading position.
Investment to help further scale firms presence
Newzoo has been delivering high-quality industry intelligence for some time now. From revenue predictions, to audience dynamics and popularity growth, the company is covering a wide range of industry analytics.
“Gaming will remain our key focus, including all the trends that originate from it (such as esports) and the impact these can have on other industries and markets. Newzoo’s essence will not change, the investment will simply help us be the scalable tech company we aim to be,” Newzoo CEO Peter Warman shared with GamesBeat.
The investment will help Newzoo to expand its presence into worldwide markets. Moreover, Newzoo should also add value to Advance Publications’ other interests, such as the Sports Business Journal. The know-how from market intelligence, data, and analytics that Newzoo gathered from games and esports can be applied to the traditional sports industry.
“We will use the investment to expand our organization and global presence, particularly in Asia and the U.S.,” said Newzoo CFO and co-founder Thijs Hagoort in a statement. “This capital will also be used to increase investments into big data processing, machine learning, and interface technology that will power Newzoo’s upcoming services and future ambitions.”
As the gaming industry keeps growing, demand grows for accurate and comprehensive market intelligence. In this sense, Newzoo has positioned itself very well.
“Adding Newzoo to the Advance family of companies will add innovative power and capabilities to our group and help us build our sports intelligence business,” said Sports Business Journal CEO Whitney Shaw. “Combining the data and resources that we already have at SBJ with the tech, talent and expertise of Newzoo will be amazing.”
Interest for gaming market intelligence grows
The Newzoo investment follows the recent acquisition of SuperData by Nielsen. Both SuperData and Nielsen are big players in the market research space, the first being a veteran in the esports market.
With an influx of interested parties into the gaming industry scene, the interest for market intelligence keeps growing. This is exactly the gap these companies are trying to fill.
“Video games have become a mainstream form of entertainment that engages and excites billions of people globally. In Nielsen we found a shared vision of helping clients understand the changes taking place in consumer entertainment preferences,” said SuperData CEO Joost van Dreunen, back in September.
