Atlanta Esports Ventures (AEV) is an American

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

firm. AEV is a partnership between

Cox Enterprises Cox Enterprises, Inc. is a privately held global conglomerate headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, with approximately 55,000 employees and $21 billion in total revenue. Its major operating subsidiaries are Cox Communications and Co ...

and Province, Inc. The firm has investments in two Atlanta-based

esports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

teams in the

Atlanta Reign Atlanta Reign is an American professional ''Overwatch'' esports team based in Atlanta, Georgia. The Reign compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's West region. Founded in 2018, Atlanta Reign began play as one of eight ...

of the

Overwatch League The Overwatch League (OWL) is a professional esports league for the video game ''Overwatch'', produced by its developer, Blizzard Entertainment. The Overwatch League follows the model of other traditional North American professional sporting lea ...

and the

Atlanta FaZe The Atlanta FaZe is an American professional Call of Duty League (CDL) esports team based in Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta FaZe is a partnership between FaZe Clan and Atlanta Esports Ventures. Atlanta was announced as one of the first five cities to ...

for the

Call of Duty League The Call of Duty League (CDL) is a professional esports league for the video game series '' Call of Duty'', produced by its publisher Activision. The Call of Duty League follows the model of the Overwatch League as well as other traditional N ...

History

Atlanta Esports Ventures was founded in 2018 as a partnership between

, a global conglomerate headquartered in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, Georgia, and Province Inc., a

financial advisory Corporate services or business services are activities which combine or consolidate certain enterprise-wide needed support services, provided based on specialized knowledge, best practices, and technology to serve internal (and sometimes external) ...

firm based in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, Nevada. Paul Hamilton was selected as the company's president and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

due to his values and history working with Cox.

Investments

Atlanta Reign

On August 2, 2018, it was announced that Atlanta Esports Ventures purchased one of

Activision Blizzard Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California. It was founded in July 2008 through the merger of Activision, Inc. (the publicly traded parent company of Activision Publishing) and Vivendi ...

's expansion slots in the

at an estimated $30 million to $60 million. Activision Blizzard had been expecting to sell Atlanta one of the expansion slots, as president and CEO of Activision Blizzard Esports Leagues Pete Vlastlica noted, "We always had our eye on tlanta from the beginning. It asjust a matter of when." The team,

, became the first esports team to officially represent the city of Atlanta. In October 2019, AEV purchased a property for the Atlanta Reign in Atlanta to act as its headquarters for a reported million.

Atlanta FaZe

On May 2, 2019, Activision Blizzard announced that AEV had purchased one of the first five franchise slots for the ''

Call of Duty ''Call of Duty'' is a first-person shooter video game Media franchise, franchise published by Activision. Starting out in 2003, it first focused on games set in World War II. Over time, the series has seen games set in the midst of the Cold W ...

'' League. According to

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

, the publisher was looking to sell slots for approximately $25 million per team. "We have the opportunity to — once again — play a pivotal role in Atlanta's diverse esports community by bringing the future of ''Call of Duty'' esports to the city," said Hamilton in a release at the time. AEV and

FaZe Clan FaZe Clan (formerly FaZe Sniping) is a professional eSports, esports and entertainment organization headquartered in Los Angeles, California, USA. Founded on May 30, 2010, the organization has players from around the world, across multiple game ...

partnered together for the team, and in October 2019, they announced that the team would be named the

References

External links

Atlanta Esports Ventures
(company website) {{Atlanta Reign Financial services companies established in 2018 2018 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Companies based in Atlanta Venture capital firms of the United States Atlanta Reign Esports organizations American companies established in 2018