Cantor subsidiary finances social gaming and fantasy sports start-up
News on 30 Jun 2013
News on 30 Jun 2013
Cantor Ventures, the venture capital and enterprise development arm of Cantor Fitzgerald, has invested a hefty $25 million in TopLine Game Labs, a Los Angeles-based start-up developer of a fantasy sports and social gaming platform.
Cantor will help the company grow the team, launch new products and applications, and develop the business, a spokesman revealed this week.
Led by CEO digital media and technology executive David Geller, TopLine is leveraging a mobile-first approach to build an agnostic platform that aims to power new sports and entertainment based social games.
Geller most recently served as president and chief operating officer of Dreamworks Animation Investments, Inc, a technology incubator of consumer products, mobile applications and platforms. Earlier, he was global head of fantasy sports for Yahoo! Sports. He has also served in leadership positions at Yahoo! Music, Overture, Inc., and RioPort, Inc.
“The launch of TopLine Game Labs marks a new era in next-generation fantasy sports and social gaming,” said Geller this week.
“We are architecting a robust platform to power exciting new sports and entertainment based social games. With our initial focus on the innovative and fast growing short-duration fantasy sports marketplace, combined with our ‘mobile-first’ philosophy, we are superbly poised to expand into other categories, delivering a one-stop online and mobile gaming solution.”
Although the focus is on mobile devices, the TopLine offering will also be available on desktop and other platforms.
Howard W. Lutnick, chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and general partner of Cantor Ventures, said: “The substantial investment from Cantor Ventures combined with David’s extraordinary track record and experience including eight years at Yahoo! Inc. clearly jumpstarts TopLine Game Labs as a powerful front-runner in short-term fantasy sports and social gaming.”
Geller said that TopLine will exploit existing assets, including the best attributes of the previous Cantor Fantasy Sports offering, such as daily fantasy sports play unencumbered by season-long restrictions.
“In addition, we plan to leverage Cantor’s deep experience from ownership in the popular Hollywood Stock Exchange, the leading virtual entertainment stock market, which offers tremendous growth opportunities alongside the spectacularly growing fantasy sports market,” Geller said.
