Founded by Successful Entrepreneurs and Games Industry Veterans, Backed by Lionel Messi’s Play Time and Other Leaders in Sports and Games, Matchday Builds Games for 5B Football Fans Around the World.
Matchday, at the intersection of video games, sports, and web3, has raised $21 million in a seed funding round to build an ecosystem of casual football (soccer) games for billions of fans around the world. Matchday’s partners, team, investors, and advisors, which include Argentinian football legend Lionel Messi’s investment firm Play Time and two-time Ballon d’Or-winner Alexia Putellas, all reflect the team’s ambition and opportunity.
“Football is the sport that unites people around the world, and we at Matchday are building games that speak to players’ passions for their favorite players and teams,” said Derrick Ko, Matchday co-founder and CEO. “With the experience and passion of the best names in football and the endorsement of FIFA and FIFPRO, we are building for an untapped audience in the football community.”
Founded by a team of successful entrepreneurs across sports, games, lifestyle, and consumer products, CEO Derrick Ko, Co-founder and Chief Gaming Officer Sebastien de Halleux, Executive Chairman Razmig Hovaghimian, and CTO Benny Wong, the executive team at Matchday has decades of experience creating new, genre-defining products. De Halleux has built successful game companies Glu Mobile and Playfish with repeat exits to EA, and served as a senior EA executive where he helped launch free-to-play games, including top franchises such as FIFA, Madden, and The Sims.
The intersection of football, casual games, and web3 is the biggest opportunity in interactive entertainment today. Matchday’s vision to build a new, genre-defining category of casual football games is backed by leading investors across sectors, notably Courtside Ventures, Greylock, HackVC, Capricorn Investment Group, and Horizons Ventures.
“We will build and publish football-focused games to celebrate our love of the game,” said Sebastien de Halleux, Matchday co-founder and chief gaming officer. “At Matchday, we are all united around the dream of new types of football games to serve the sport’s massive fan base. Our games will be accessible for all players, and centered around true ownership of digital items that will be a point of pride for all players.”
The company has already signed a multi-year partnership with FIFA to bring world-class tournaments, including the Men’s and Women’s World Cup, professional football leagues, and male and female football ambassadors, into a new suite of video games to launch this year. Matchday unleashes a new category of play for football fans as they build their squads and collect digital cards of their favorite footballers. As FIFPRO’s official blockchain partner, Matchday is able to provide players with real ownership of the cards and other digital items that they have acquired as they collect, trade and grow their dream team. Upcoming releases include Matchday Play and Matchday Squads, which build upon a casual football management experience. As the Matchday ecosystem grows, players will continue to be able to play with their squad on any Matchday title.
“Matchday’s leadership has an impressive proven track record of building incredible new companies and games to address market demand,” said Matt Bilbey, former Executive Vice President at EA SPORTS, and advisor to Matchday. “Matchday is the first games company to partner with FIFA and FIFPRO to create a new genre of football games centered around true ownership for fans, and authentic interactive football entertainment for a rapidly growing global player base. When I saw what they were doing, I instantly knew I had to be part of it.”
Matchday has already seen success with the launch of the limited-time Matchday Challenge: FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Edition, which coincided with the recent World Cup. The mini-game saw nearly 600,000 signups with two million player cards distributed.
