Breakout Gaming Struggling to Raise Funds
Tuesday November 25,2014 : POKER ACES STRUGGLE TO RAISE FUNDING FOR NEW GAMING SITE
Breakout Gaming may have to search for other sources of capital.
A new online gaming company with the support of poker stars like Johnny Chan, Huck Seed, Jennifer Harman, Ted Forrest, Todd Brunson and Vladimir Shchemelev is battling to secure adequate funding in the crowdfunding environment and may have to seek other sources of capital.
The Bitcoin currency venture, Breakout Gaming, also offers its own crypto-currency – Breakout Coin – and was launched mid=September this year. Thus far the enterprise has attracted just 387 BTC (roughly $136,000) toward its 1,000 BTC ($350,000) funding target.
Experienced online gambling marketer and CMO for Breakout, Gian Perroni, has suggested that the timing may not have been right for the launch, hence the lack of interest. When funding was launched in October Bitcoin was volatile, which cooled off potential investors in the cyber-currency.
He told the publication Coindesk over the weekend that if Breakout cannot make its investment target, other sources of funding would have to be sought.
“We're building a gaming property whose sole purpose is to support the value of the coin, he said. "What will make the coin successful is if the gaming is successful, and what makes the gaming successful is the fact that we have a blend of excellent products and very, very good experienced personnel.”
The platform will accept breakout coin, bitcoin and fiat currencies for Breakout (BRO) chips – the individual tokens that enable gaming on its platform.
Breakout Gaming intends to incentivise new players to its games, which will include real-money and free poker and casino gaming, fantasy sports leagues for major US sports and fantasy games for electronic sports like League of Legends and Defense of the Ancients.
"There's no one who's running the traditional poker and casino and also blending that in with fantasy e-sports," Perroni said.
The platform will also feature a unique ‘fantasy crypto' property that will allow players to pit whole lineups of crypto currencies against one another.
Breakout coin uses a unique mining functionality called ‘Proof of Bergstake', a form of proof-of-stake mining that ensures only individuals who participate in the initial coin offering will be able to mine the currency in the future.
Investors who participate in the ICO earn bergstakes, which allow them to earn more coins, even if they sell the original coins they purchase.
Coindesk reveals that the fundraising problems may also be attributable to Breakout, which has apparently made many changes to its T&Cs in the funding run-up. Breakout argues against that criticism, pointing out that it has strived to be transparent and consultative with the community on its moves.
Professional poker player Ted Forrest, who supports Breakout, hinted at some of the complications that may have so far prevented the project from reaching its ICO goal.
“Unless people are familiar and comfortable with how to buy cryptocurrency, they are finding the process of first buying bitcoin and then buying Breakout coin (BRO) somewhat cumbersome to the point that too many just give up in frustration,” he said. “As we all know, the attention span of most gamblers is not the longest.”
Perroni revealed that Breakout Gaming will apply for licensing from the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, observing that this would allow it to position its gaming properties differently in its target markets.
