Richard Sherman always talked a good game, and backed it up, especially during his years with the Seattle Seahawks. Now the cornerback for the San Francisco 49ers is talking gaming and more as he promotes Amazon’s Digital Week as part of the tech giant’s Prime Gaming platform. Digital Week, which runs until Saturday, allows Prime members to play their favorite games from Prime Gaming (previously Twitch Gaming) and the chance to receive exclusive in-game upgrades. Sherman will be on the Prime Gaming Show on Twitch on Thursday at 4 p.m. PT. For its part, Amazon donated $10,000 worth of toys… Read More
Seattle sports fans may be able to place a legal bet on Russell Wilson’s pass completion rate during the Seahawks home opener this fall, but not from their favorite Pioneer Square barstool. Instead, they will have to travel to one of the state’s 29 tribal casinos. All forms of sports — including esports and excluding in-state collegiate athletics — are eligible for bets under the law, but it will be up to the tribes to negotiate with the state over the coming months about which sports will actually be offered. Industry insiders don’t expect esports to be part of the… Read More
Game on at the University of Washington. A state-of-the-art Esports Arena & Gaming Lounge at the UW’s Husky Union Building is up and running after an official ribbon cutting on Thursday and a week of events that helped usher in a new era of competition and learning at the university in Seattle. The 1,000-square-foot gaming center makes the UW the largest public, higher education institution in the nation to have such a dedicated facility and the first university in the state of Washington to have such a space. Aimed at casual and competitive gamers, and funded in part by the… Read More
The University of Washington is adding another sport to its competitive landscape in Seattle with the addition of the new Esports Arena & Gaming Lounge in the school’s Husky Union Building (HUB). According to a news release on Tuesday, the state-of-the-art, 1,000 square-foot gaming center, set to open this spring, will support both casual and competitive gaming and virtual reality. It will be partially funded by the Student Technology Fee. Tapping into the highly popular world of competitive video games will make the UW both the largest public, higher education institution in the nation and the first university in the state… Read More
Taunt, a Seattle-based startup that allows esports fans to interact and predict game outcomes, announced Thursday that it has closed a $3 million seed financing round, led by Foundry Group. Taunt is a spinout of the startup studio Pioneer Square Labs, whose new venture fund PSL Ventures joined in the investment along with Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital and CRCM Ventures, an esports industry investor. Foundry, which helped PSL get off the ground back in 2015, helped Taunt get started in September by leading a $1.7 million investment round. Taunt became the fifth startup to spin out of PSL, joining LumaTax, Jet Closing, AdLighting… Read More