Unikrn Inc. (styled as "Unikrn") is an esports betting and entertainment media company based in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, Washington. In August 2021, international betting, gaming and interactive entertainment company

Entain Entain plc, formerly GVC Holdings, is an international sports betting and gambling company. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It owns brands such as bwin, Coral, Ladbrokes, PartyPoker, and Spo ...

acquired Unikrn.

Overview

Founded in November 2014, Unikrn primarily offers real money and token-based wagering on competitive video game tournaments, otherwise known as

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 ...

. Unikrn creates betting markets on

(organized video game competitions) matches akin to traditional betting.

History

The company was founded by

Rahul Sood Rahul Sood is the CEO and co-founder of Irreverent Labs, the former CEO of Unikrn), and was the founder of VoodooPC Voodoo Computers Inc. or VoodooPC was a luxury personal computer brand and company. Voodoo was originally started as a niche PC ...

and Karl Flores in November 2014. In 2016, Unikrn became an investor in BIG (Berlin International Gaming), a professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team. Unikrn also has an investment in

MAINGEAR Maingear (stylized as MAINGEAR) is an American privately held ("boutique") computer manufacturer headquartered in Warren, New Jersey. Producing Maingear builds, designs, and supports custom desktops, gaming computers, customizable laptops, and ...

, a high-end PC manufacturer. In the second quarter of 2017, Unikrn acquired LEET, an esports startup based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Unikrn also owns an Indian-based esports company, DotaProHub. In November 2017, the company released UnikoinGold, an

ERC-20 Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (Abbreviation: ETH; sign: Ξ) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capita ...

cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. It i ...

, running on the

Ethereum Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (Abbreviation: ETH; sign: Ξ) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capita ...

blockchain. In September 2020, Unikrn agreed to a settlement with the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

after raising $31 million via a digital asset called UnikoinGold in an unregistered 2019 token sale of digital. Unikrn volunteered to settle without determination of guilt by paying a $6.1 million penalty to be paid via a

Fair Fund A Fair Fund is a fund established by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to distribute disgorgements (returns of wrongful profits) and penalties (fines) to defrauded investors. Fair Funds were established by the Sarbanes–Oxley Act o ...

to its token holders. Unikrn also undertook to disable UnikoinGold Unikrn settled despite lack of consensus within the SEC that Unikoingold constituted a security, with Commissioner Hester M. Peirce saying, "I do not concur in my colleagues’ opinion that Unikrn’s token offering constituted a securities offering ..By failing to challenge ourselves to experiment with new approaches to regulation, we, and those whose interests we are pledged to serve, risk surrendering the fruits of innovation. I respectfully dissent from the Commission’s actions today relating to Unikrn." She further clarified, " nikrnis not alleged to have engaged in any fraud." In 2021, Unikrn partnered with FYX Gaming to work jointly on development of an updated monetization structure.

References

{{ESports Companies based in Seattle Esports websites Online gambling companies of the United States Gambling companies established in 2014 American companies established in 2014 2021 mergers and acquisitions