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Sam Li, an experienced investor and advisor in the sports tech industry, joined Blocksport’s Advisory Board to support Blocksport’s key management in international scaling and business development in traditional sports as well as help the company to access top sports clubs, leagues and federations.

“I’m excited to join Blocksports’ journey as it continues to impact the esports space through innovative solutions for esports organizations. The esports industry has tremendous growth ahead and Blocksport is primed to capture a significant portion of the market”, Sam Li comments on his new Advisory role in Blocksport.

Sam has over ten years of experience in the traditional sports industry, having served as Vice President at the NBA and Head of International Business Strategy for Sina Sports.  Sam’s investment portfolio includes over thirty startups, several of which have gone on to raise over $150 million cumulatively. 

Sam also serves as mentor/advisor for a few of the most selective accelerators including Stadia Ventures, Techstar, Startupbootcamp and HYPE Innovation. Sam has a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Michigan Law School and dual bachelor degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles. He also has a LEAD Certificate in Corporate Innovation from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Sam is a speaker at industry conferences including Leaders, SportsPro, SportsAccord, Sportel, APOS, All That Matters, SPIA, Soccerex, etc.

FC Metalist 1925, a professional football club from Ukraine joins the Swiss-based SportsTech Blocksport to launch innovative mobile app solution for its fan community.

Blocksport’s platform offers Metalist’s fan community an innovative way to interact with their favorite teams, players and sponsoring partners. The mobile solution will allow fans to influence club-related decisions within polls and access exclusive benefits through team-related fan games. FC Metalist 1925 and its sponsoring partners will provide unique experiences for fans’ in-app activities and successful completion of fan missions.

In Q2 2021, FC Metalist 1925 and Blocksport will launch a tokenization project – the first of its kind in Ukrainian sports – where the fans will have a chance to earn fan tokens in exchange for exclusivity from their lovely club. At the later stage, FC Metalist 1925 is planning to run crowdfunding campaigns over Blocksport’s platform allowing them to raise funds directly from the fans and supporters.

Vladimir Liulka, Blocksport’s Co-Founder and CEO, says: “There is a great team behind the FC Metalist 1925 and we are proud to have them as a client. This cooperation with the Ukraine-based football organization sets an important milestone for Blocksport to scale its presence in the Eastern-European sports market.”

Andrii Nedielin, CEO of  FC Metalist 1925  comments: “We are very excited to team up with Blocksport and very much looking forward to a continued relationship with them.”

The Norway-based professional Esports organization SKADE joins Blocksport to launch its bespoke fan app solution to strengthen its proximity with its Scandinavian and international fan communities. Being founded in 2019, SKADE started by a group of Esport enthusiasts with years of experience in the industry, an HQ has quickly set up in Mosjøen, Norway.

SKADE becomes our one more incredible Scandinavian Esports club to underline its commitment towards gamified fan engagement and will simultaneously be able to strengthen its sponsoring partner’s brand awareness while offering unique money can’t buy experiences to its fans.

Blocksport’s white label club app will offer SKADE fan community an innovative way to interact with the teams, players and sponsoring partners. The mobile solution will allow fans to influence team-related decisions within polls and access exclusive benefits through fan games. SKADE and its sponsoring partners can provide unique experiences for fans’ in-app activities and successful completion of fan missions.

Vladimir Liulka, Blocksport’s Co-Founder and CEO, says: “Velkommen til familien, SKADE. We are proud to have signed with Kim and his team. Very looking forward to cooperating with SKADE. Happy to bring the values for your team, partners and fans by delivering our market-leading fan engagement mobile platform.”

Kim-Erik Aanes, Founder and CEO of SKADE comment on the partnership: “This is a big step towards the future for us as a team and organization. We are looking to reach out to our fans and followers in new and unique ways and this is what Blocksport offers. In the near future people can follow all our activities AND interact with us on a whole new level.”

The professional Esports organization FATE, founded and based in Jordan, joins the Swiss-based SportsTech Blocksport to launch its own mobile app solution to strengthen its proximity with its Middle East and European fan community.

FATE is an Esports team and organization with a deep-rooted global network and knowledge of the competitive gaming industry. Founded in early 2017, FATE specialises in Esports team management, player scouting, Esports event organisation, live broadcast, and talent management with the aim of pioneering the world of competitive gaming and nurturing the environment worldwide.

With the support of Blocksport’s mobile app FATE becomes the first Middle East Esports club to take its first steps to underline its commitment towards innovation and gamified fan engagement. Blocksport will be able to strengthen its fan community and build its brand awareness while offering a unique experience to its fans and sponsoring partners.

Blocksport’s white-label Esports app will offer FATE’s growing fan base a gamified way to interact with the community, the teams, players and sponsoring partners. The mobile solution will allow fans to influence club-related decisions within polls, play team-related fan games and access money can’t buy benefits. FATE and its Sponsors can reward fans with exclusive discounts and unique experiences for their in-app activities and participation in the global community creation.

Vladimir Liulka, Blocksport’s Co-Founder and CEO says: “We are delighted to have signed with FATE Esports, one of the most innovative and forward-thinking esports organizations in the Middle East region. Welcome on board, guys!”

Mohammad Majali, FATE’s CEO and Founder, comments on this partnership: “We are very excited to join forces with Blocksport.Io, one of the best smart sports ecosystems in the market today. Blocksport gives us the opportunity to engage with our fanbase and supporters through gamified experiences and rewards.”

Virtus.pro and Blocksport are announcing an upcoming launch of a fan app – Bearloga. The application release for Android and iOS platforms is scheduled for November 2020. Upcoming fan app will provide users with exclusive content, direct chats with players and “money can’t buy” benefits.

Sergey Glamazda, CEO of Virtus.pro: “We are proud of our fans and try to be closer to those who support us in and out of the game. Such fan apps are pretty common among sports clubs, but we decided to further its range of functions and added a lot of things you can’t find in any other app. From now on our fans will not only get access to exclusive content but also to make decisions regarding the club’s future together with management.”

Vladimir Liulka, CEO of Blocksport: “Trying to build an app without in-depth software development experience is like trying to build a sports car from scratch. We have all this required expertise and we’re extremely pleased to see that also one of the Top 10 Esports team shared this view and identified the added value of our platform.”

Bearloga app will be gradually improving, adding more functionality and content.

Wir freuen uns, dass der ehemalige Esportler und heutige Berater Niklas Timmermann zu unserem Advisory Board dazu stösst. Er ist ein absoluter Gewinn für Blocksport, der mit seinem Netzwerk und seiner Erfahrung wichtige Impulse setzen kann.

“Bereits zu Beginn meiner ersten Führungsrolle im Werksteam von Alternate aTTaX 2010 wurde mir bewusst, wie wichtig eine tiefgehende Verknüpfung zwischen der Organisation und ihren Fans ist, um langfristig am Markt erfolgreich und präsent zu sein. Blocksport bietet in meinen Augen eine fantastische Möglichkeit, diese Beziehung deutlich zu vertiefen und so einen großen Teil zum Erfolg eines Teams beizutragen. Ich freue mich daher sehr, das Team rund um Semih und Vladimir tatkräftig unterstützen zu können”, sagt Niklas Timmermann.

Bio:

Die Bildzeitung bezeichnete ihn einst als “virtuellen Michael Schumacher”. Als ehemaliger Welt- und Europameister im Rennspiel Need for Speed ist Niklas seit 2003 im Esports unterwegs und agierte dabei nach dem Ende seiner professionellen Spielerkarrie 2010 als sportlicher Leiter für diverse Esports-Teams. Während seines juristischen Anwärterdienstes 2016 machte er sich mit seiner Firma E-Native als Berater für Esports selbstständig und war ebenfalls als ehem. 1. Vizepräsident an der Gründung und Umsetzung des Esportbund Deutschland e.V. beteiligt. Seit April 2019 hat er alle bestehenden Projekte in die Skillshot überführt.

The Belgrade-based semi-professional Rugby League club RLK Crvena Zvezda (Red Star Rugby League) joins Blocksport to launch its own mobile app solution to strengthen its brand and position with its Serbian and global fan community. Red Star Rugby League was initially founded in 1956, within the Red Star Sporting Society and recommenced playing rugby league in 2006. In 2021, Red Star Rugby League will celebrate its 15^th year of continuous rugby league, and its 65^th anniversary in the sporting society. There is no better way to celebrate that milestone than with a brand new app to bring our growing fan base closer to the action!

Red Star Rugby League has been a leader in the expansion of the game, working in close cooperation with the Serbian Rugby League Federation. Red Star’s fan base is now one of the strongest in European rugby league and their Facebook following is actually larger than one of the Super League clubs in the top tier of the game in England! This shows the commitment of Red Star Rugby League to their social media brand. Red Star Rugby League’s plans for the future are very strong, and the management is building the club for a professional future.

Red Star Rugby League, as our biggest European Rugby League Club is committed to developing gamified fan engagement, and will now be able to offer its fans a special “one-stop shop” for sponsor and partner promotions, access to live streaming, statistics, ticketing, memberships, merchandising offers and special “app” only content.

Blocksport’s white label club app will offer Red Star Rugby League’s fan community an innovative way to interact with the teams, players and sponsoring partners. The mobile solution will allow fans to influence club-related decisions within polls and access exclusive benefits through team-related fan games. Red Star Rugby League and its sponsoring partners can provide unique experiences for fans’ in-app activities and successful completion of fan missions.

Vladimir Liulka, Blocksport’s Co-Founder and CEO, says: “We are welcoming RL Belgrade Rugby League Club as our first client from Rugby sports. Blocksport is fully committed to deliver the sophisticated fan app for RLK’s community and helps the club to activate and engage their fans!”

Colin Kleyweg, Managing Director of Red Star Belgrade Rugby League Club had this to say on the partnership: “Our club is very proud to have signed this agreement over three years with Blocksport. We are constantly seeking to innovate and grow our social media presence and develop robust revenue streams that power the continued growth of our rugby league team. We have very big plans for the future. Deals like this with Vladimir and his team make us more confident that our processes are moving in the right direction. Dobro došli u RLK Crvenoj Zvezdi!”

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About Red Star Belgrade Rugby League Club

Red Star Rugby League presently play in the Serbian Rugby League Federations Prva Liga and in the Balkan Super League. In the last 4 seasons, Red Star has won an impressive 11 trophies across 4 competitions and held a 1,000-day unbeaten streak over its fiercest rival, Partizan 1953 Rugby League. In 2022 the club is seeking to move to a professional league to continue its robust growth and to assist in the development of internationally capable Serbian players.

The Esports Expert, previous Vice President in IBM and Co-CEO of ESL, will support Blocksport’s key management in business development and the company’s growth strategy.

Vladimir Liulka, CEO about the engagement of Heinrich:

“Heinrich is an industry-recognised growth expert with strong traction in the esports market. We are happy to see Heinrich among our Board Directors and we have no doubts that his know-how and insights will accelerate our company’s growth. Welcome to our Team, Heinrich!”

Heinrich Zetlmayer, Board Director, about his Blocksport engagement:

“Glad to work with the Blocksport team to support fan engagement for esports and other sports. Esports and other sports teams want to engage more with their fans and fans want to engage deeper with their teams and that needs to be better supported.”

About Heinrich Zetlmayer

Heinrich Zetlmayer is an accomplished digital investor and growth expert with a unique background in esports and blockchain as former Co-CEO of ESL. He is the founder, CEO and managing partner of Blockchain Valley Ventures (BVV) and a partner with mas management and advisory ltd.. Heinrich has a unique wealth of experience as previous Vice President in IBM, Co-CEO of ESL, and former leader and Senior Partner of Arthur D. Little’s Global Operations Practice.

Sportradar, the global market leader in sports data intelligence, has selected Blocksport as a member of the 2020-2021 cohort for its startup accelerator, Acceleradar.

Designed to support innovators around the globe, the Acceleradar program gives Blocksport access to Sportradar’s data to enhance its mobile apps platform and the technology that powers it. The associated technologies include machine learning, artificial intelligence, and immersive media. In addition, the team at Acceleradar provides one-on-one coaching and mentoring to Blocksport Team.

As a trusted service provider to more than 1,000 companies in over 80 countries, Sportradar serves as the official partner of the some of the most respected and widely-followed sports leagues in the world, including the NBA, NFL, NHL and NASCAR, as well as soccer giants FIFA and UEFA. It is also the only provider entrusted to work with the US sports leagues in an official capacity to distribute sports data (NBA and NHL) around the world for betting purposes. The company monitors and delivers insights from more than 400,000 matches annually across 60 sports categories, having developed the industry’s most proficient software while setting new standards for speed and accuracy.

“Their data feeds will improve our traditional sports data coverage within our mobile apps platform and accelerate our development with the delivering best in class data-driven technologies by Sportradar”, said Vladimir Liulka, CEO and Co-founder of Blocksport.

The Gaming Expert and Co-Founder of BIG and Mousesports will support Blocksport’s key management in business development and product strategy.

Vladimir Liulka, CEO about the engagement of Tom:

“Tom is an experienced expert in the esports industry. His gaming background and understanding of the gamer will help us to improve our value proposition and to increase the user experience. Additionally, his unique access to a professional network of betting platforms, brand, gamers, influencers and streams could also boost our expansion.”

Tom Lemke, Senior Advisor, about his Blocksport engagement:

“Blocksport enables esport teams to fast-track their digitization efforts and fully capture their audience without having to build their own tech. It is a turnkey solution for teams to create their own exclusive content and monetize it! I am excited to work with Blocksport to help teams all around the world gain additional revenue streams and actually own the data from their fans. Teams must start to lessen the dependency on sponsorship income and Blocksport is the perfect solution to enable just that!”

About Tom Lemke

Tom has been an avid gamer ever since he played Super Mario Land on his Gameboy. Tom’s track record lies mainly within the sports betting industry where he helped to create a total of 3 esports betting platforms. On top of that, Tom co-founded 2 of Germany’s biggest esport teams: Mousesports and BIG Clan. In 2019 Tom founded his own company “Skillshot Consulting” through which he advises non-endemic companies how to advertise within the gaming & esports space.