糖心视频

If there was any doubt that the esports craze is no passing trend, NBA legend has put money into esports ownership group aXiomatic, the company today.

While aXiomatic didn鈥檛 reveal the funding amount, Bloomberg . It also included participation from , the family office of , who is the co-founder and co-executive chairman of .聽Curtis Polk, managing partner and alternate governor of Hornets Sports & Entertainment, also joined as an investor.

Jordan, who today owns the NBA鈥檚 Charlotte Hornets, led the investment through his family office, according to the company鈥檚 release.

鈥淚鈥檓 excited to expand my sports equity portfolio through my investment in aXiomatic,鈥� Jordan said in a prepared statement. 鈥淓sports is a fast-growing, international industry and I鈥檓 glad to partner with this great group of investors.鈥�

He has also invested in , and smart headphone maker .

Axiomatic began operating in November 2015, and is the parent company of , which runs a professional gaming team. It plans to power 鈥渆ven more engaging esports experiences,鈥� and strengthen existing partnerships with the new capital, according to its release.

In September, I reported on how global venture investment in the fledgling field of organized professional competitive video gaming surged to $701 million over 60 deals in the first half of 2018, according to Crunchbase research. That was up 73 percent compared to $403.7 million raised across 53 deals in the first half of 2017.

More recently, 鈥攐ne of the larger esports companies鈥攔aised $50 million in a new round of funding on Oct. 15, according to its .

Also in September, I wrote about how more and more National Basketball Association players were getting into the venture funding game with the goal of taking startups to the next level, and how that wasn鈥檛 an entirely new phenomenon.

As time goes on, I expect we’ll only see more sports figures invest in startups 鈥� especially in the growing sector of esports.