Conquering Geek Culture

Ralf Reichert is Co-Founder of the Electronic Sports League (ES), the world’s largest independent esports company with offices around the globe. ESL creates esports leagues, tournaments, and runs production studios. In this episode, Ralf shares the ups and downs of his almost 20 years with ESL, why open ecosystem are important for the esports industry, and why ESL focuses on building a place where “everybody can be somebody.”

Jason Masherah is President at Upper Deck and has been with the company for over 14 years. In this episode of Conquering Geek Culture, Jason walks Chris through the Upper Deck verticals Sports Cards, Entertainment and Upper Deck Authenticated Memorabilia & Collectibles and discusses “Upper Deck e-Pack," which moves the traditional trading card experiences into the digital world.

Gary Vaynerchuk is Chairman of VaynerX, CEO of VaynerMedia, and 5x New York Times Best-Selling Author. He began working at his family wine store, where he grew the business from $3M to $65M in just five years. In an interview with Chris Hana, Gary explains how he uses his skills to identify trends and why he is bullish on esports. Among other things, both dive into Gary’s investment in the Minnesota Røkkr Call of Duty League team and Gary’s experience with Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf, who is currently represented by the newly created VaynerGaming agency arm.

Chris Overholt is the CEO of OverActive Media (OAM), an esports and entertainment organization that heavily invests in franchised esports teams. With his deep roots in traditional sports, Chris explains why he joined the esports industry, why he believes in the franchise league model and why esports leagues will eventually outperform traditional sports. Furthermore, Chris provides insights on how OAM helps its talent grow professionally and how he thinks about video games in the Olympics.

Tim Hayden is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Stadia Ventures, the global Sports Innovation Hub for entrepreneurs, industry partners and investors. Chris Hana and Tim discuss Stadia’s investment philosophy, why Stadia also invests in esports, technological trends, why traditional sports is ahead of esports when it comes to monetization, and what both industries can learn from each other. They also chat about how Stadia built a big network of supporters across both industries and how they bring both worlds together.