Dani’s tweet (https://twitter.com/danielesesta/status/1472647065486438405) got me thinking - how can we make it to esports? I’m over 30 yr old so esport is not my thing anymore. But in Spain and Latam esport is pretty big. So I thought: who are the biggest influencers in that space?
Answer: Ibai Llanos and Gerard Pique.
Basically, whatever these two do, it becomes gold. A partnership with KAO would be huge for Wonderland. Besides, they target an audience that is ideal for crypto: young kids living in countries with a shitty economy/currency (i.e. Argentina, one of the nine countries with the highest adoption of cryptocurrencies)
I would like to ask you guys how you see a potential partnership playing out or even the tokenomics involved in such a deal.
So, who is Ibai Llanos?
Ibai (born 26 March 1995), is a Spanish internet, streamer, and esports( commentator.
He is a Twitch and YouTube content creator, and a presenter for G2 sports until 2021
On Twitch, he has more than 7.1 million followers, which places him in the tenth position globally among the channels with the most followers. On YouTube, he has more than 7 million subscribers on his main channel and has a total of 1.07 billion visits. He is a two-time winner of the “Streamer of the Year” award by the Esports Awards, after winning them back-to-back in 2020 and 2021. He was named one of the most influential people of Spain in the world according to a Forbes list in 2021.
On August 21, 2021, he shared a tweet showing a clip of two young people playing a balloon game; in which both, agile and fast, kept the balloon from falling to the ground until there was a winner. Ibai said he wanted to buy the rights to this game and organize a whole World Cup of that activity. On September 26, 2021, together with the Spanish footballer Gerard Piqué, they made official a world balloon tournament called Balloon World Cup, which took place on September 14 October.
So, who is Gerard Pique?
Pique is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a center-back for La Liga club FC Barcelona. He is considered one of the best defenders of his generation.
Besides his football career (and higher IQ compared to the average footballer) is the founder and president of Kosmos Holding, a sports and media investment group he started with Hiroshi Mikitani (founder and chairman of Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten, Inc.
- Kosmos has struck a partnership with the International Tennis Federation for a 25-year, $3 billion partnership that will transform the Davis Cup and generate substantial revenues for global tennis development.
- In December 2018, through his firm Kosmos Holding, Piqué bought Spanish football club FC Andorra. The club currently competes in the third tier in Spanish football league
- In December 2020, Piqué invested in the fantasy football game Sorare.
- Kosmos bought the Spanish broadcasting rights for the 2021 Copa América under a partnership with streamer Ibai Llanos.
- Few days ago, Ibai and Piqué announce new esport org, KOI, set to compete in League of Legends and Valorant. KOI’s already signed League of Legends roster, facing off against Karmine Corp, in a show match that reached 470k peak viewers on Ibai’s own channel