October 2017
- Before Fortnite had been streamed on Twitch for 742 million hours,SeventySix Capital made a strategic investment in the esports industry by backing N3rd Street Gamers, founded by John Fazio and Rob Hilsky.
June 2018
- Comcast Spectacor announced an investment in N3rd Street Gamers.
- Comcast Spectacor is the owner of a portfolio of professional sports teams, including the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers and the Overwatch League’s Philadelphia Fusion.
- SeventySix Capital Partners Wayne Kimmel (N3rd Street Gamers Board Member) and Ryan Howard announced the deal from the stage of their keynote talk at Hashtag Sports, a conference for innovative sports businesses in New York City.
What's Next
- The N3rd Street Gamers and Comcast Spectacor partnership links Philadelphia’s first professional esports franchise with the region’s most powerful amateur esports pipeline and marks the advancement of a national framework for in-person esports competition and player development.
- Comcast Spectacor’s expertise as an owner and operator of professional sports teams, as well as top-flight venues that elevate the live event experience, is now integrated with N3rd Street Gamers’ proven ability to engage and cultivate the nation’s rapidly growing esports culture. Together, both companies will expand opportunities for aspiring esports athletes through a soon-to-be announced network of events aimed at developing and showcasing amateur talent on a nationwide scale.
About N3rd Street Gamers
N3rd Street Gamers is an esports network based in Philadelphia and headquartered at Localhost Arena in Northern Liberties that focuses on serving semi-professional, amateur, and developing competitive gamers. Founded in 2011 by entrepreneurs John Fazio and Rob Hilsky in the Jarvus Innovations Incubator, N3rd Street Gamers promotes greater accessibility to the esports industry by not only increasing the amount of in-person competitions, but also by running them on high quality equipment at affordable prices. To accomplish this, N3rd Street Gamers empowers competitive gaming communities with resources to grow and a national system for tracking player progression. Tying together the communities under a unified regional framework in 2018, N3rd Street Gamers launched the NSG Eastern Conference Championship with events spanning three cities and multiple games. Backed by SeventySix Capital, a premier sports tech venture capital firm led by MLB World Series Champion Ryan Howard, N3rd Street Gamers is laying a national framework for esports talent development.
About SeventySix Capital
SeventySix Capital is a sports tech venture capital company led by Wayne Kimmel, Jon Powell and MLB superstar, Ryan Howard. The fund invests in passionate, smart and nice entrepreneurs who are launching game-changing tech startups in the sports, retail and wellness industries. SeventySix Capital was nominated as an Outstanding Investor by SportTechie.
Kimmel founded the firm in 1999 with top exits to Fortune 500 companies including Aramark, Intel, IBM, Walgreens, and Yahoo. Powell is also the CEO of Kravco Company LLC, a leading real estate company that developed over 30 million square feet of commercial space including the King of Prussia Mall. His family was an owner of the Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars, the two-time United States Football League champions. Howard, a World Series Champion and 2006 NL MVP, is known as one of the all-time great home run hitters. His investment portfolio includes professional gaming team, NRG Esports, alongside Shaquille O’Neal, Jimmy Rollins, Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez.
SeventySix Capital has a strategic partnership with Rubicon Talent, a sports marketing and talent agency based in New York City, with clients including NFL stars DeMarco Murray, Greg Olsen, and Mark Ingram, Olympians Kerri Walsh Jennings and Lolo Jones, and MLB legend Cal Ripken, Jr.
