Unikrn Inc. (styled as "Unikrn") is an esports betting and entertainment media company based in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, Florida. In August 2021, international betting, gaming and interactive entertainment company

Entain Entain plc, formerly GVC Holdings, is an international sports betting and gambling company. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It owns brands such as bwin, Coral (bookmaker), Coral, Ladbrokes, P ...

acquired Unikrn.

Overview

Founded in November 2014, Unikrn primarily offers real money and token-based wagering on competitive video game tournaments, otherwise known as

esports Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...

. Unikrn creates betting markets on

(organized video game competitions) matches akin to traditional betting.

History

The company was founded by Rahul Sood and Karl Flores in November 2014. In 2016, Unikrn became an investor in BIG (Berlin International Gaming), a professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team. Unikrn also has an investment in MAINGEAR, a high-end PC manufacturer. In the second quarter of 2017, Unikrn acquired LEET, an esports startup based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Unikrn also owns an Indian-based esports company, DotaProHub. In November 2017, the company released UnikoinGold, an ERC-20

cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. Individual coin ownership record ...

, running on the

Ethereum Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (abbreviation: ETH) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capitalization. It is open-s ...

blockchain. In September 2020, Unikrn agreed to a settlement with the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...

after raising $31 million via a digital asset called UnikoinGold in an unregistered 2019 token sale of digital. Unikrn volunteered to settle without a determination of guilt by paying a $6.1 million penalty to be paid via a Fair Fund to its token holders. Unikrn also undertook to disable UnikoinGold Unikrn settled despite lack of consensus within the SEC that Unikoingold constituted a security, with Commissioner Hester M. Peirce saying, "I do not concur in my colleagues’ opinion that Unikrn’s token offering constituted a securities offering ..By failing to challenge ourselves to experiment with new approaches to regulation, we, and those whose interests we are pledged to serve, risk surrendering the fruits of innovation. I respectfully dissent from the Commission’s actions today relating to Unikrn." She further clarified, " nikrnis not alleged to have engaged in any fraud." In 2021, Unikrn partnered with FYX Gaming to work jointly on development of an updated monetization structure.

References

{{ESports Companies based in Miami Esports websites Online gambling companies of the United States Gambling companies established in 2014 American companies established in 2014 2021 mergers and acquisitions