Gfinity plc (AIM: GFIN), a world-leading esports provider, today announces a partnership with Snack Media, who will be responsible for monetising the fast-growing EpicStream website.
Covering all things fantasy and Sci-Fi, including entertainment news, Marvel, Star Wars and more, Epicstream has grown from 600,000 to more than 2 million monthly users, since it was acquired by Gfinity in November 2020.
Along with best-in-class SEO, which has been driving the growth, EpicStream.com is underpinned by millions of fans spread across a network of more than 42 Facebook pages and groups. Like RealSport and Gfinityesports, EpicStream will move on to Gfinity’s own CMS, Manifold, in Q2 – optimising ad delivery, website performance and user experience.
Under the new partnership, Snack will provide programmatic and direct advertising solutions to the site, as well as offering technical counsel and support to ensure optimal profitability. The partnership will also see Snack advise and support GDM’s traffic diversification strategy, which will help the GDM group grow new audience verticals.
Formed in May 2020, Gfinity Digital Media delivered £1 million of revenue in the first half of the Financial Year 2021, outlined in the unaudited half year results. It remains on track to deliver revenues of £2 million in FY21.
Talal Musa, Head of Gfinity Digital Media, said: “Snack Media are experts in building, engaging and commercialising massive communities of loyal fans and audiences using their proprietary ad tech and fan engagement tools.
“With EpicStream’s unprecedented growth curve, and millions of loyal fans on social media, we’re best positioned to captilise on the return of the entertainment sector – which will be back in full force this year. The move also represents a commitment from GDM to diversify traffic streams, build a direct audience and create an ecosystem of engaged fans.”
James Murphy, Head of Partner Network, said: “We are determined to continue working with the very best content creators and premium publishers in and around the world of sport. With the esports ecosystem set to surpass $1.5B in 2023, we’re excited to be partnering with Gfinity.
“Together we will be creating original, compelling and engaging content, ‘The Stack’ and using our existing scale and relationships in-market to commercialise this and Gfinity’s other digital assets with partnerships, display advertising and other sustainable revenue streams.”
