Stryking and FC Bayern Munich sign licensing partnership for digital collectibles

Stryking Entertainment (a subsidiary of Animoca Brands) and leading German football club FC Bayern Munich have signed a licensing partnership to produce and distribute digital collectibles based on FC Bayern players. That’s the start of creating a global platform for blockchain-based digital collectibles centered around popular sports licenses. A first teaser website at stryking.io has been launched today and more licensing partnerships will be announced. “Our vision is to build a truly global hub where sports fans meet to collect and trade as well as play with their digital collectibles”, said Dirk Weyel, Founder and CEO of Stryking Entertainment. More information about the partnership you can find here.

Stryking will pitch at PUMA’s Football Innovation Competition

Stryking has been invited to participate at the finals of the PUMA’s Football Innovation Competition which is being hosted in Herzogenaurach in cooperation with HYPE Foundation. 1,000 start-ups were screened by HYPE, 50 of them were invited to put in their application and PUMA chose the 10 finalists for the competition in their headquarter on November 8th. Besides taking part in the pitching competition, the event is a great opportunity for Stryking to exchange its vision with PUMA seniors, meet think-alike people and discuss about how football fans will interact with their favorite sports, clubs and stars in the future. More information about the event can be found here.

FC Bayern Munich and Stryking announce license-based partnership

Bundesliga record champion FC Bayern Munich and fantasy sports developer Stryking Entertainment today announced the first details of their joint license partnership. With 28 Bundesliga and five Champions League titles under their belt, FC Bayern Munich is not only one of Europe’s top football clubs, but they also have an immense fan base. Alongside their 290,000 club members, they have 60 million followers on social media, showing just how big of an appeal the club has. The collaboration gives fans access to specialised game content, unique in-game competitions and tailored fan articles on Football-Stars. Through its involvement in Football-Stars and by engaging their fans in an interactive platform, FC Bayern has the opportunity to learn more about its own worldwide fan base. Therefore, FC Bayern will present the fantasy sports platform Football-Stars to its own fans online and offline.

Successful football agent Thomas Kroth joins advisory board

We are pleased to announce that former Bundesliga and German national player Thomas Kroth has signed for our network of advisors. With his experience as a players agent, Kroth will support Stryking with building partnerships in the football industry where he is well-connected to many players and some of Europe’s and Asia’s biggest clubs and leagues. The signing of Kroth is another step forward for Stryking. After announcing the introduction of the STRYKZ token earlier this year, Stryking signed football legend Luís Figo as their first brand ambassador for Football-Stars in April. In collaboration with new partners and the upcoming World Cup, Stryking aims to propel their Fantasy Sports platform to the next level. To learn more about the STRYKZ token sale please visit: www.strykz.io.

Luís Figo is Football-Stars’ New Brand Ambassador

Stryking has signed Ballon d’Or winner and former FIFA World Footballer of the Year, Mr Luís Figo, as brand ambassador for the platform Football-Stars and to help promote STRYKZ. The Portuguese football legend will support us with his football business network and actively engage with Football-Stars’ users in in-game challenges and other activities. Figo will also act as an ambassador for our new STRYKZ token: “With the upcoming Token Sale Event, Stryking will scale tremendously and I am excited to be part of this journey.” We look forward to working together! To find out more about the partnership, read our press release here!

sportdigital STARS now available

Stryking and sportdigital.tv have launched the all new sportdigital STARS, based on the innovative fantasy football platform Football-Stars. Users compete against each other in different challenges and select their teams from the real professional squads. The challenges are commentated and followed on the on-Air weekly sportdigital STARS magazine. As well as a look forward at the upcoming Challenges, the show also gives valuable commentary. Regular screening on Thursdays at 20:10 from January 2018.

Nominated for Best Daily Fantasy Sports Game & Innovator of the Year!

We are incredibly excited to announce that Football-Stars has been nominated for two awards this year at the FSTA: Innovator of the Year and Best Daily Fantasy Sports Game. The Fantasy Sports Trade Association honours both individual and organisational achievement in the fantasy sports industry. We are thrilled to be listed in the competition beside previous successful winners such as DraftKings, Yahoo Fantasy Sports, and ESPN. Watch this space for more exciting news to come from Stryking soon!

Hong Thieu joins Stryking!

We are pleased to announce our latest addition to the management team: Hong Thieu! Hong recently joined us as CFO after extensive experience in the fields of Corporate and Business Development, Corporate Finance as well as in start ups in particular. Hong has an impressive array of specialities, which he has honed through his functions as CFO as well as being Vice President Corporate Affairs at a listed firm and working as investment director for a family office. We look forward to working closely with you!

Feature in Hype Top 50

Stryking Entertainment is excited to be featured in the latest edition of the HYPE 2017 TOP 50 magazine! We are delighted to share with you the digital copy of the magazine, which names us as one of the 50 most innovative sports startups of the year. The magazine is a well regarded and established publication, with insightful articles about the future of sports innovation by leaders from a range of areas such as UEFA, Microsoft as well as Eintracht Frankfurt. We have enjoyed strengthening our ties to the community which prides itself in identifying and nurturing innovation in sports. Have a read here.

Stryking at the DSE Conference

Stryking enjoyed a very successful Digital Sports & Entertainment conference this week. It was great to see such a high turnout, not only for the event itself, but especially for the forum which Stryking founder & CEO Dirk Weyel led. The panel discussion was extremely animated, with enthusiastic engagement from the audience. The speakers soon picked up one of the hottest trends dominating fantasy sports at the moment; the huge potential for the European market to develop. We were given some interesting insights into the impressive scale of the market already existing across the Atlantic, and the panelists were enthusiastic about the huge potential for the European market to develop along similar lines, with a focus on the sports more popular here: football. The audience was also privy to some interesting ideas about how best to engage sports’ fans and ensure their loyalty to the gaming platform, which Stryking is excited to apply to further improve user satisfaction.

Digital Sports & Entertainment

Following last year’s success, Stryking will once again be represented at this year’s conference taking place in Berlin on the 16th & 17th October, with its very own forum all about fantasy sports. A case study will kick things off: The digital TV provider sportdigital.tv is about to launch sportdigital STARS, which is based on Football-Stars’ own technology, and will also generate more exposure for the game through a new show which will run weekly. In the presentation to follow, Prof. Dr. Thilo Kunkel from the renowned American Temple University, will explore how Fantasy Sports increases fan engagement. To conclude, a panel discussion featuring the speakers and the Stryking founder & CEO Dirk Weyel will investigate some of the opportunities and challenges facing media platforms, clubs, rights holders and brands as they aim for fan retention and engagement with Fantasy Sports. You can find more information about the event on the official website and also in the event programme (German only).

Stryking to compete in SPIN Final competition

Alongside the UEFA Champions League Final, Stryking has been chosen as one of ten start-ups to present in the Sports Innovation (SPIN) Final competition taking place at Cardiff University. Stryking will pitch its unique Daily Fantasy Football platform Football-Stars to the esteemed jury, competing for one of the top three winning places – leading up to the grand prize, largescale exposure and the opportunity to impact the world of sports. The jury will include high-level representatives and influencers from the sports and tech worlds, UEFA, Cardiff University and the HYPE Foundation, a platform that connects and invest in sports Innovation.

Stryking to cooperate with sportdigital

Stryking will develop a dedicated version of its fantasy football platform Football-Stars for the Hamburg based pay-TV station. Under the name of ‘sportdigital Stars – Die Fußball Challenge” (The Football Challenge), football fans will be able to play a specially tailored version of Football-Stars. The playable content of sportdigital STARS will focus on sportdigital’s licensed football leagues, such as the Chinese Super League, the South American Copa Libertadores or the Dutch Eredivisie. In order to keep users informed, sportdigital will produce and broadcast a weekly TV show about the latest challenges. Viewers will be provided with both, previews of upcoming challenges as well as expert opinions about prospects of various teams and players. The sportdigital TV package is completed by classic TV formats such as commercials and co-presenting.

Stryking chosen as a 2017 Red Herring Top 100 Europe Winner

Red Herring announced its Red Herring Europe award winners this evening at the Top 100 forum, recognizing Europe’s leading private companies and celebrating these startups’ innovations and technologies across their respective industries. At the final award event, Stryking and its fantasy football platform Football-Stars made its way into the exclusive “2017 Red Herring Top 100 Europe Winner” list. Since 1996, Red Herring has kept tabs on these up-and-comers. Red Herring’s Top 100 list has become a mark of distinction for identifying promising new companies and entrepreneurs. Red Herring’s editors were among the first to recognize that companies such as Alibaba, Facebook, Google, Kakao, Skype, SuperCell, Spotify, Twitter, and YouTube would change the way we live and work. Following Strykings’s well-deserved win, they are then invited to showcase their company to the US market at the Top 100 North America event in June and later compete internationally for the Top 100 Global in November.

Stryking is a Finalist for the 2017 Red Herring Top 100 Europe Award

Stryking and its Daily Fantasy Football platform Football-Stars have been selected as a finalist for Red Herring’s Top 100 Europe award, a prestigious list honoring the year’s most promising private technology ventures from the European business region. During the months leading up to the announcement, Red Herring reviewed over 1,200 companies in the telecommunications, security, cloud, software, hardware, biotech, mobile and other industries that completed their submissions to qualify for the award. The nominees are evaluated on 20 main quantitative and qualitative criterions, which include disruptive impact, market footprint, proof of concept, financial performance, technology innovation, social value, quality of management, execution of strategy, and integration into their respective industries. The finalists are invited to present their winning strategies at the Red Herring Europe Forum in Amsterdam, April 24-26, 2017.

Stryking has been named one of the top 50 most innovative start-ups in sports and tech

An expert jury has voted Stryking with its unique Fantasy Sports Platform Football-Stars into the “TOP 50 Most Innovative Start-ups in Sports and Tech” Program. The program, run by the HYPE Foundation, includes several opportunities to connect with executives and investors of the sports and sports media industry. Notable partners such as Accenture, Google, Microsoft or Team Sky support the program which helps the selected start-ups to build-up their businesses by providing several activities and events as well as giving access to a huge network of professional contacts. As an example, the start-ups can present their innovative products or services at top sports events such as the UEFA Champions League Finale, the British Open in Wimbledon, the Tour de France or the Boston Marathon to an exclusive audience.

Stryking at SPOBIS

SPOBIS calls, Stryking follows. This year more than 2,000 attendees will travel to Düsseldorf to discuss trends and innovations in the sports industry. SPOBIS, one of the most important global industry meetings, will take place on 30th and 31st of January. One of the hottest topics in sports nowadays is Daily Fantasy Sports, and leaders and pioneers from the Fantasy Sports field will be present at the Congress Center Düsseldorf. Draft Kings CEO Jason Robins will be on stage and Stryking-CEO Dirk Weyel will present the unique Daily Fantasy Sports-Platform Football-Stars to media partners, clubs and sponsors. More information about SPOBIS 2017 here.

The Bundesliga is back!

The winter break is over and the first half of the season can finally be completed. Sounds funny, but it’s true. Because the Bundesliga started quite late in 2016 due to the European Championship, the last matchday of the first round will be played from Friday on. The start is made by champions Bayern Munich, who is a guest in Freiburg. So Football-Stars users are finally back in business and can play Bundesliga challenges. For the Bundesliga’s 17th match day 15 exciting challenges are available. On Saturday night there will be the clash of the surprising teams: second against fourth. Or: RB Leipzig against Eintracht Frankfurt. We look forward to thrilling games and even more exciting challenges.

Nomination as Rookie of the Year

The year 2017 could hardly start any better: We are nominated for the FSTA-Award as Rookie of the Year. The prize of the Fantasy Sport Trade Association (FSTA) is awarded annually and the winner is determined by a voting of all members. With Football-Stars, we brought Daily Fantasy Sports to football fans in Europe for the first time in summer 2016. Thanks to the unique Meta Game that features achievements, level progression and various retention mechanics users will be entertained for the long term. Even now, users are able to play challenge of the top five European leagues or the Champions League daily. The award ceremony of the FSTA-Award will take at the FSTA Winter Conference (23rd and 24th January) in Nashville.

Digital Sports and Entertainment

On 10 October, Stryking will organise a forum revolving around fantasy sports at the 4th Digital Sports & Entertainment show. Hardly any other sector represents the interaction between sports and entertainment like the daily fantasy sports market. More and more sports fans deal with news and statistics on a daily basis in order to optimise their line-ups on competitive daily fantasy sports platforms. Stryking’s forum on fan engagement and monetisation will be hosted by Sven Wedig, managing director of Vollpension Medien. Speakers include Dirk Sommer (Ligainsider.de), Christian Gretz (Sportradar) and Stryking’s CEO Dirk Weyel. For further information, please visit the official homepage or check out the programme.

DFSE in London

This Friday, the “Fantasy Sports” industry will meet up at Daily Fantasy Sports Expo in London to talk about trends, technologies and current marketing strategies. In the USA, Fantasy Sports has been a billion-dollar business for years. According to Forbes, an average player spends about $457 – per year! In Europe, Fantasy Sports, and especially Fantasy Football, are still at the very beginning of their development, but are also experiencing a strong growth rate. Thus, the newest developments discussed in a panel called “UK & EURO DFS TRACK: 2017 FORECAST” by Stryking’s CEO Dirk Weyel and other experts promise to be the more interesting.

The new Season has started!

Many people have got their eyes on Rio right now, but true football fans know: Here in Europe is where the real action happens! This weekend means kick-off for English Premier League and French Ligue 1. Perfect timing for a thundering comeback of our brand-new Football-Stars Challenges, playable now! But wait, there’s more awesome news: Our popular Manager game is welcoming back football experts with a shiny design makeover, many new players and cool updates for the new season. This year, managers can lead their Bundesliga AND Premier League teams to victory. Sounds good? Then check it out now. Also, take a look at the updated iOS app.

The Euros – A great success for Football-Stars!

It’s been about a week since Portugal won the Euros. High time to draw a conclusion, wouldn’t you agree? So, here’s our first insight: Europeans love daily fantasy sports! During the Euros, numerous football fans competed against each other in our web version at www.football-stars.com and contested in several hundred challenges, fighting other managers for victory. Doing so, they increased their manager level, unlocked various achievements and eagerly collected the in-game currency “Stars”, which they exchanged in the shop for real-life fan products such as the current Germany jersey. And what worked so excellently during a four-week tournament can only get better for a whole season, right? This is why we are working non-stop to reach our planned milestones for the 2016/2017 season: separate apps, new designs, further challenges, more leagues and an improved usability. Check back regularly for more news.

Football-Stars released!

It has taken more than one year of heartfelt commitment, long hours and tears, but now it’s official:

Football-Stars is finally released!

We are incredibly excited about all those upcoming days of suspense and thrill from the countless Challenges awaiting our users at www.football-stars.com. And have you heard? There’s that great football tournament starting at the end of this week. Talk about coincidence! Find out more about the release of Football-Stars on our website’s Press Section.

Stryking releases daily fantasy sports platform “Football-Stars”

The Euros are just around the corner! On time for the kick-off of this year’s football highlight, Stryking is launching the new daily fantasy sports platform “Football-Stars” (www.football-stars.com) for web browsers. In it, football fans have the opportunity to compete with other fans in numerous challenges and to prove their football expertise to everyone. Their success depends on real players’ real-life performance data. The users’ dedication and expertise are rewarded with the in-game currency “Stars”, which can then be exchanged for real fan merchandise and other products via the integrated shop. On time for the beginning of the next Bundesliga season, Football-Stars will be available for Android and iOS devices as well. It will combine the classic fantasy manager with the new Challenge Mode. Future plans include further language versions and the integration of additional top leagues. Further information are available in our press section.

Cooperations with DB Regio NRW and ASUS

During the hot and final phase for SPORT1’s Bundesliga Manager, Stryking managed to gain two notable cooperation partners for the last two matchdays of Bundesliga season 2015/16. We are happy to welcome aboard DB Regio NRW, a division of DB Mobility Logistics, and ASUS, one of the world leaders in manufacturing computer hardware. Both partners will support our fantasy football manager with an in-game sponsoring of the weekly Matchday Challenges and providing awesome prizes for our users. Besides numerous in-game advertising formats, our social media channels also offer news on the two new raffle cooperations.

Stryking expand their Circle of Investors

Stryking welcome further prominent investors who will support the establishment of their own fantasy sports platform with a six-digit investment. With Christoph Bornschein and Boontham Temaismithi two highly successful experts for the digital sector are coming on board. Furthermore, Stryking receive support from Dutch serial entrepreneur and gaming specialist Reinout te Brake, who founded iQU, GetSocial and other companies and who possesses extensive know-how and has a broad network in the gaming industry. Further information are available in our press section.

Dirk Weyel speaks at Apps World

On 20 and 21 April, Apps World will take place in Berlin’s CityCube. Here, both established development giants such as Wooga and Gameduell, but also start-ups meet up to exchange news about the latest and most interesting topics from the mobile and app universe. In the course of the conference (on 20 April, 15:30 CEST to be exact), Stryking’s CEO Dirk Weyel will speak about the huge potential that Fantasy Football currently holds in Europe. In addition, he will present Stryking’s unique selling points for their Daily Fantasy Sports platform, which is currently still in development and will be launched for the football hightlight of the summer 2016.

Dirk Weyel speaks in Miami

While we are here in Berlin, dreaming of better weather, sunny Miami currently offers a cosy 26 degrees. All the better for Stryking’s CEO Dirk Weyel, who will be speaking about Fantasy Sports in Germany and Europe at the Daily Fantasy Sports Expo currently happening in Florida. During the show, which was mainly created for the representation of management, technology and marketing of Daily Fantasy Sports, Dirk will focus on the Fantasy Sports market in Europe. Besides this, he will talk about connecting successful free-to-play mechanics with a Daily Fantasy Sports platform in order to increase user commitment. In the course of the next big update, Stryking are planning to implement this trend-setting step in their own Fantasy Sports platform. If you want further information on the expo, please visit the official site.

Mobile World Congress

New week, new show! Stryking will be attending the Mobile World Congress currently happening in Barcelona. CEO Dirk Weyel is raking in more of those frequent flyer miles to travel to the Spanish city and talk about new cooperations. With last year’s 94,000 participants and exhibitors from 200 different countries, the Mobile World Congress has proven to be the biggest and most important mobile event worldwide. If you currently happen to be in Barcelona and are interested in learning about our Daily Fantasy Sports vision dedicated to European football fans, you should contact Dirk now.

Stryking at Casual Connect

New week, new show! Stryking’s CEO Dirk Weyel has travelled to the Dutch capital Amsterdam to chat about new cooperations and partnerships at Casual Connect. His main focus lies on Stryking’s new Daily Fantasy Platform, which will be launched in a few months’ time. If you happen to be visiting Amsterdam and want to meet up with Dirk at the show, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Bundesliga-Stars App of the Day

This made our day! Chip.de, a well-known German portal for IT and telecommunication products, dubbed our fantasy football game Bundesliga-Stars their App of the Day. This holds true for both the Android and iOS versions. We received a very good Chip rating, but we love the editors’ concluding words even more: “With “Bundesliga-Stars”, you’ll get the best-looking and most extensive football management game currently available in the Play store for your Android device.” We say thank you to Chip for the award and are already working on new features. Watch out, 2016, cos we have mighty big plans for you!

Cooperation with LigaInsider

On time for the launch of Bundesliga-Stars, we are happy to announce our first cooperation with the inner circle of football. Starting now, numerous Bundesliga-Stars advertising formats can be found on www.ligainsider.de. The German online portal’s news coverage mainly focuses on the Bundesliga, so it makes the perfect partner for a promising cooperation. Amongst other things – like special advertising formats – the online portal’s line-up and news pages will be displaying advertising boards for Bundesliga-Stars. This way, football fans are able to find out about the latest news and then put their new-found expertise to use in-game.

Bundesliga-Stars launched!

New Year, new game! Stryking are celebrating the launch of their management game “Bundesliga Stars”, now available for browsers (www.bundesliga-stars.com) and Android. The iOS app will be released in the next week. On time for the pending start of the second half of the Bundesliga season, this marks the release of the second fan platform after SPORT1’s Bundesliga Manager. A license agreement between DFL and Stryking ensures that Bundesliga-Stars will feature official logos, player images, as well as real-life performance data to guarantee unlimited gaming fun. With Bundesliga-Stars, football enthusiasts and experts get the chance to face-off in various game modes and competitions and to win awesome prizes on the fly. And we’re not stopping there! During the next few weeks, the platform will be further improved upon and upgraded with unique new features. Stay tuned!

Stryking welcomes new Investors

We at Stryking are happy to welcome two new investors, who will support us in further developing our Fantasy Sports platform. With 6-digit investments each, the two new capital providers Gameplay Media GmbH and Sports Transfer GmbH are now investing in Stryking’s future. Gameplay Media GmbH, mostly owned by Greentube’s co-founder Jochen Martinez, has been one of the most successful media agencies within Germany’s gaming and skill-gaming sectors since 1998. Moreover, Sports Transfer GmbH, a company rooted within the professional football business, is joining Stryking’s investors. The company’s managers – former Bundesliga professional and Swiss national player Mario Eggimann, and Sandra Fischer, specialist for international organisational and personnel development – will provide Stryking with extensive expertise and long-time contacts within the sports business. You can find the corresponding Press Release.

Christmas Cup 2015

Manager games traditionally have the problem of seasonality: The attraction to enter during a season is quite difficult. The big transfers are made and it is hard to catch up to the leading managers. Stryking combats this fact with creative contests, that are held over a few match days only and give players a reason keep playing. That’s why we launched the Christmas Cup 2015 during the international break last week. The big advantage: all participants start with a new team, therefore equality is secured. Already thousands of players have signed up for the Cup. This special event where the best 100 managers will win cool prices will be pushed by our media partner Sport1 with an online advertising campaign and several editorial integrations.

Stryking in the Top 20!

1.700 start-ups were registered for the Slush convention in Helsinki. Only 100 had the honor to participate the pitching competition – including Stryking. CEO Dirk Weyel had 3 PowerPoint pages, 180 seconds presentation and 60 seconds Q&A time to convince investors jury. And obviously we are not the only ones convinced by our vision: Stryking made it to the semi-finals and thus in the top 20 of all start-ups. Although we had another pretty good run in the semi-finals, four companies from completely different business areas made it into the final.

On the Road

Exciting events and many bonus miles are ahead of us. For a start, CEO Dirk Weyel and CMO Christian Szymanski are going to fly to Helsinki, where Stryking was chosen as one of 100 startups to present their vision of Fantasy Sports games in Europe to a high-profile investor-jury at the digital convention Slush. Already Wednesday afternoon the next flight with the destination Busan is lying ahead. In the second largest city of South Korea Dirk is going to attend the biggest online- and mobile-gaming convention G- STAR in order to meet with potential partners for the internationalization of the Bundesliga Manager. As more than 600 exhibitors are going to participate the show the schedule is well filled.

Stryking on stage

15,000 entrepreneurs, VCs and journalists will travel to Finland in order to sift promising start-ups as part of the slush conference. Last year already more than 3,500 startups participated the conference taking place in Helsinki. Stryking is going to attend this year’s show as CEO Dirk Weyel and CMO Christian Szymanski will meet up with potential partners and investors. As one of 100 selected start-ups Stryking is proud to have secured an exclusive spot on the “start-up stage” and will thus have the opportunity to inspire the top-class jury of investors with their vision of fantasy sports in Europe. For more information about the conference please visit the official website.

We are going to conquer the world!

Matchday for matchday the Bundesliga attracts million german football fans. Whether at the stadium, at the sports bar, on the couch at home or in our Bundesliga Manager. But not only in Germany fans are fascinated of Lewandowski and Co. Even abroad the Bundesliga gets more and more attention. The time has come that other countries and languages ​​are also haggling over Bundesliga players week by week! That’s why Stryking is proud to announce to have signed an international licensing agreement with the DFL. The agreement covers the operation of a Bundesliga Manager game in English, Mandarin, Indonesian, Turkish and other languages. More information will be announced soon.

Hard Work Pays Off!

Quite a turbulent starting phase is behind us. Numerous updates and features have been released in the past few weeks. Now we celebrate the positive trend of the last few weeks, because numbers do not lie! Last week the average rating of the Bundesliga Manager app hit the 4,0 mark for the very first time. With a rating of 4,5 stars iOS users are rating the current version of the app even a bit higher.

Digital Sports and Entertainment

„Tablet is the new TV“ and „Mobile First“ – following these devices, top clubs as Hertha BSC and Borussia Mönchengladbach as well as top brands (e.g. Deutsche Bahn, BMW) gathered together at Digital Sports and Entertainment in Berlin. Of course we’ve also been on the ground to talk about gamification and to exchange experiences. When talking about the future all parties are on the same site: it is about bringing fans and brands closer together. As one of the highlights of the show Stryking-CEO Dirk Weyel gave a paper on fan engagement and monetisation with the Bundesliga Manager.

The FSTA Summer Conference

Hardly a proud member of the Fantasy Sports Association Trade ( FSTA ) CEO Dirk Weyel already attended the Summer Conference in New York to get a more accurate picture of the Fantasy Sports market in North America. The numbers are impressive: In the US more than 51 million people play Fantasy Sports and are generating nearly 24 billion dollars of annual revenue. Annual growth rates of 20-30 % have detonated the market and ensure that fantasy sports games have become a very important factor for fan engagement for the professional leagues and clubs .

“The Summer Conference of the FSTA was a very inspiring event with powerful impressions and new contacts. The dynamics of the industry in North America is simply impressive. Although the focus is naturally still on classical American sports, soccer is growing significantly. It’s just a matter of time until the Fantasy Sports boom of reaches Europe.“ says CEO Dirk Weyel enthusiastically.

Stryking joins Fantasy Sports Tade Association (FSTA)

It is our pleasure to announce that, as of today, Stryking Entertainment GmbH is a member of the Fantasy Sports Trade Assocation (FSTA). The FSTA has been bringing together all of the activity in the the Fantasy Sports Industry for over 15 years in order to connect professionals and represent their interests. In order to introduce ourselves properly to our fellow Fantasy Sports Industry members, we have sent our CEO Dirk Weyel across the Atlantic to attend the FSTA Summer Conference, an event taking place in the Crowne Plaza at Times Square, New York, where he will be representing Stryking Entertainment GmbH in person. He will be writing a report from the conference in the near future, so stay tuned!

Every Season’s end heralds the beginning of the next.

Summer holidays? We don’t understand the idea. Whereas most of the Bundesliga Players are currently relaxing on a beach in Mallorca, we are utilising the opportunity to knuckle-down and prepare for the upcoming season. Better, harder, faster, stronger – the Bundesliga Manager from Sport1 will be receiving a bundle of new features presented in a new, modern design. We can’t wait to release it for our fans to play!

And that’s a wrap!

As the final whistle blew on May 23rd, 2015, Bundesliga Manager from Sport1 officially ended it’s first live season. Over the course of our first 34 match days, players took part in more that 150,000 transfers and collected a sum of approximately 1.5 Billion virtual euros from the Question of the Day. Finally, the fans of FC Augsburg have more to celebrate than just the ability to take part in the Europe League 2015/2016, they are also achieved the most BLM Points in our Fan-Liga competition. Our congratulations!

nspyre commerce brings real fan products in online football game FANPOWER®

Stryking Entertainment GmbH und yoyo AG cooperate in order to offer real products for real fans in the free-to-play online football game fanpower.com, a game which owns the official license for all German Bundesliga clubs. With Stryking’s in-game e commerce solution nspyre commerce, the users of fanpower.com gain the chance to purchase special bundle packages consisting of real products and premium virtual currency, which can be used within the game to buy in-game items. For example players can buy real individual fan t-shirts and other fan items, which they can present in real life to show which club they support.

Experience Papa Sangre’s true sound with Sennheiser

Prick up your ears:  In collaboration with Sennheiser, one of the leading producers of microphones and headphones, and the British game developer Somethin’ Else, Stryking has started a new brand co-operation.

The co-operation is about integrating Sennheiser in the mobil-horror-game Papa Sangre. In this innovative title the player simply relies on his acoustic sensitivity, as the navigation trough the World of the death functions via sounds and noises. Excellent headphones are therefore a must.

Everyone who likes to give himself the creeps and wants to experience the unique atmosphere of Papa Sangra, should crap his headphones right now – preferably Sennheisers.

Stryking at dmexco 2013

On the 18th and 19th of September Stryking will be attending dmexco 2013 in Cologne to present two new exciting projects to brands and agencies: the online racing game “Auto Club Revolution” and the online football game “I am Playr”.

This year’s Digital Marketing Exposition Conference (dmexco) is setting a clear sign with its motto “Turning Visions into Reality”. Stryking will be part of the exhibition and takes up on the motto of dmexco with its own vision of “experiencing brands digitally” – Stryking deeply integrates real brands into games to ideally combine the real with the virtual world and therefore to create interactive entertainment worlds out of free-to-play games.

You can meet Stryking at the BERLIN.digital stand in hall 7.1 | C46/C48.

Stryking’s innovative e-commerce solution for free-to-play games

On this year’s gamescom in Cologne (21.-25.08.2013), Stryking Entertainment will present its novel e-commerce solution for free-to-play games – nspyre commerce. Using this solution, developers and publishers of free-to-play games are given new possibilities for reaching their target group. For the first time, they can offer them relevant real products bundled with virtual currencies in the in-game-shops of their games. By combining attractive bundled packages of “real” games and in-game-currencies gamers are given new incentives to visit the shops regularly and are likely to turn into paying clients.

More info can be found here: Stryking Entertainment presents nspyre commerce

Revive Wardenclyffe: TGV and Stryking support donation campaign

Wardenclyffe, the last still existing laboratory of the physicist and futurist Nikola Tesla is supposed to be restored with the help of a big donation campaign. True Global Ventures and Stryking Entertainment support the project. Dušan Stojanović, Business Angel of the Year and founder of TGV has done a personal donation. Further donations will be made by True Global Ventures every time it realises a positive exit. TGV and its network are also helping with their knowledge in order to help the Tesla Science Centre to fully Revive Wardenclyffe on Long Island.

More info on the project can be found here:  Revive Wardenclyffe

Funding round with TGV and Investitionsbank Berlin completed

Stryking Entertainment has completed its first financing round with an early stage investment by the Super Angel Fund True Global Ventures and a project funding by Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) via its Pro FIT program as well as an additional investment of founders and existing shareholders. The complete amount of 1.3 million Euros will be used to further develop and launch nspyre™. The new technical solution and service enables developers and publishers of free-to-play games to sell real products next to virtual goods within their in-game shops and to integrate consumer brands as part of the gameplay.

“Hundreds of millions of people play free-to-play games every day but only 5-10% of all users spend money, so it´s a huge challenge for games providers to monetize their games and to recoup their production, operations and marketing costs. Stryking’s nspyre™ solution offers new incentives and real value for players thus giving game publishers the chance to monetize 100% of their users. That´s why we believe that Stryking’s approach will be game changing for the industry. We are pleased that Stryking has already as of July 2nd signed-up the award winning online football game I am Playr giving the company a strong start”, comments Dušan Stojanović, awarded in May 2013 as the European Business Angel of the Year by EBAN and founder of True Global Ventures.

More info can be found here: Stryking completes funding round with True Global Ventures and Investitionsbank Berlin

Stryking kicks off with award-winning online football game I AM PLAYR

Stryking Entertainment has agreed  a co-operation with the social entertainment company We R Interactive to market the innovative online football game I AM PLAYR in the German-speaking region. The focus lies on the integration of brand and media partners as an integral part of the gameplay. In I AM PLAYR the users live the life of a professional footballer. Through the combination of 3D game play and interactive story telling  that are told with the help of more than 500 professionally produced first person videos a new form of authentic social entertainment  is delivered.

More info on I AM PLAYR can be found on our I AM PLAYR project site and in our press release.

Stryking closes first external funding round

The international early-stage venture capital fund True Global Ventures invests in Stryking Entertainment to support the development and market launch of Stryking’s own technical framework that will provide developers and publishers of free-to-play games with completely new e-commerce functionalities and opportunities to integrate brand partners directly into the game.

“We are very happy to be able to collaborate with such a visionary and experienced founder and management team. The innovative technology and the consistently market-orientated approach of Stryking will push the free-to-play business model for games to a new level,” says Dusan Stojanovic, founder of True Global Ventures.

Click here for more information: Stryking closes first external funding round

SPORT1 launches racing game community Auto Club Revolution

Berlin-based Stryking Entertainment gains the Munich media channel, SPORT1 as a partner for its first co-publishing venture Auto Club Revolution (ACR). Users of the online portal SPORT1.de and SPORT1 TV now have a specifically branded version of the online racing game from the leading British independent racing game developers, Eutechnyx which will be promoted in Germany by the Berlin monetisation specialist. This is where fans, stars and brands can unite around the theme of motorsport.

Click here for more information: SPORT1 launches racing game community Auto Club Revolution 

Images, features, and navigations that are fun!

We are pleased to present our revamped homepage. In interactive entertainment worlds, we integrate major brands and stars in the game experience and thereby create digital entertainment platforms for communities.

“The fan is always our main focal point. Digital entertainment only functions in an active community, where all relevant partners are linked. That is now reflected in our homepage,” CEO Dirk Weyel explains.

Click here for more information: Stryking brings together fans, brands, games and eCommerce

Our CEO Dirk Weyel discussed monetising games at the games.net roundtable

At the second games.net roundtable, 80 players from the Berlin and Brandenburg games industry met to talk about the future of monetisation forms. All agreed that brand integration via advertising and sponsoring as well as branded virtual items will significantly contribute to free-to-play games sales in the future.

Click here for pictures and extensive report: http://www.medianet-bb.de/DE/id364aid289o0_rueckschau.html.

Champions wanted!

We are searching for talents with an entrepreneurial mindset, who are willing to roll up their sleeves and get down to business, and have high aspirations – interesting tasks, an ambitious team, flat hierarchies, and attractive opportunities for advancement await you!

Currently, we are looking for a Business Development Manager, Web Designer, Web Developer, Java Backend Programmer, and a Game Developer. Trainees are also welcome. At the moment, we require qualified support for our Community Management and Marketing teams. Visit our job-site for more information concerning job descriptions.

Formula 3 Pro Marvin Kirchhoefer on board

In the middle of February, we contracted the talented Formula 3 driver, Marvin Kirchhoefer, for a co-operation. In addition to major car brands such as BMW, VW and Lotus, the first star from motorsports is cooperating with the racing community Auto Club Revolution.

Kirchoefer, Germany’s Motorsport Talent 2012, benefits from the strongly growing ACR community and integrated links between the virtual and real world: Players can directly interact with their idol and compete with him in the game.

Merry X-Mas – Bye bye 2012

The first exciting year at Stryking comes to a close and we are already looking forward to what awaits us in 2013: Preparations are under way. Have we sparked your interest? Then take a look at our Stryking Christmas workshop:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGHTjj9DHm8

Stryking at Gamescom 2012 in Cologne

In the first year of operation, we couldn’t miss Gamescom, the largest games show in Europe, a must-attend event. We presented Stryking at a joint stand with the Berlin-Brandenburg media industry. The live presentations of Auto Club Revolution were a highlight.

BMW as strong partner for Auto Club Revolution

For Auto Club Revolution, we work in close collaboration with the automotive industry in order to perfect the game experience for car fans online. Therefore, licensed vehicles and numerous sweepstakes are integrated for our partner BMW.

“Our customers are receptive to technology and enjoy configuring their dream car according to their own preferences. With Auto Club Revolution, we have the opportunity to make a variety of our models accessible to enthusiastic car fans. The reproduction of our models according to the originals was particularly important to us,” as Andreas-Christoph Hofmann, Manager of Brand Communication BMW, Marketing Services BMW Group, enthusiastically explained.

Click here for more information about the BMW Experience in ACR:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rupobF8H1Bo