Launchpool AMA Recap — Megafans

Launchpool Labs x Megafans AMA Summary

Place: Launchpool Telegram Community

Date & Time: Friday, Nov 15 @ 4PM UTC

Guests: Jeff Donnelley (Founder and CEO) | Colin Bracey (CTO and Lead Developer) | Matteo Martinez | Zachary Fingerle (Community Manager)

Hosts: Roxana Nasoi and Lasersheep

The team over at Megafans joined for a Community AMA over at the Launchpool Community Telegram Chat for an exclusive and extensive AMA session!

Questions from the Launchpool Team

Hi everyone, welcome to the first Launchpool Labs #AMA
This is Roxana from @LaunchpoolLabs, Launchpool’s chain-agnostic incubator.

Today, we have with us the team from Megafans: @Jdca8 (Jeff Donnelley) @MegaCTO (Colin Bracey) @matteomartinezz (Matteo Martinez) and @Zha_Ke (Zachary Fingerle)

Jeff: Hello Launchpool Labs. Thank you for having us.

Zachary: Hello Everyone!

Colin: Hello, great to be here!

Roxana: Pleasure to have the Megafans team with us today.
Gentlemen, please introduce briefly about yourself and Megafans.

Zachary: Jeff Donnelley is Founder and CEO of MegaFans. Mr. Donnelley has been a gaming executive since 1998, when he owned his first advertising agency and has been a key growth strategist for some of the biggest brands in the eGaming industry including Ubisoft, Draft Kings, World of Tanks and Jam City (Panda Pop and Cookie Jam).

Mr. Donnelley has started five companies and had two successful exits to date. Megafans is Mr. Donnelley’s latest project. His vision is to build the world’s first mobile esports community using blockchain technology and the first mobile gaming company to offer cryptocurrency and NFTs in a play-to-earn environment for gamers and collectors to win, trade and share. Jeff is also very passionate about supporting women in gaming and technology and he is using this global platform to reach and promote women entrepreneurs across the world.

Colin Bracey is CTO and Lead Developer at MegaFans. Mr Bracey has been the European lead developer for over 25 years for several world class companies such as Motorola, Vodafone, Orange, TRW and most recently 7x Powered Group in Canada. Mr Bracey has been a founder at three startups including two gaming companies.

Mr, Bracey and Mr Donnelley met in 2017 while working on another mobile eSports game platform, which had a successful ICO. They decided to partner-up on MegaFans in 2019 and put together a world class team of advisors from the gaming and blockchain space to achieve their vision. MegaFans currently has one patent with multiple proprietary technology claims and also three trademarks to date.

Roxana: For us at Launchpool Labs, it’s highly valuable that founders have a pre-existing business relationship and friendship, this shows unity and power. Can you please tell us more about your market and goals for our community? Could you also give us some hints about your advisors and potential partnerships?

Zachary: Megafans is building the world’s first mobile eSports gaming community using blockchain technology, NFTs and cryptocurrency in a play-to-earn environment for gamers and collectors. The global mobile gaming market has 2.8 billion daily active users (DAUs) generating $100 Billion in ARR in 2021 with 12% CAGR, who want to participate in the metaverse, exchanging and trading assets that change in value.

Megafans eSports system is a software development kit (SDK) that integrates with any mobile game application, offering a fully scalable, enterprise level, gamfi monetization and retention system with multiple revenue streams and cross platform marketing opportunities. Lastly, but importantly, we are using our global platform capabilities to increase engagement in emerging and under-served markets, focusing on developing young women in gaming, eSports and STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) programs.

MegaFans has 13 industry advisors (7 women and 6 men) who are all experts from the fields of eGaming, iGaming, Fantasy and eSports, blockchain, cryptocurrency and NFTs. They’re from high pedigree companies such as Disney, Activision, Rock Star, Draft Kings, Launchpool Labs and San Diego State University. We are working with several fantastic technology platforms through Launchpool Labs that are helping us continue to develop our advisory team as well as opportunities to partner with other blockchain and metaverse projects. We will be announcing more key partnerships soon.

Roxana: Can you name some of the advisors you have?
Or show us a screenshot of the many faces and names that are backing up Megafans with valuable advice?

Jeff: We also added Stephanie Agremanikas, EVP of Marketing at Draft Kings, to our Women Advisory Board.

Roxana: Great to see so many brilliant names and profiles backing Megafans!

We’re seeing already an explosion in e-gaming and play-to-earn in our own space, @Jdca8 Jeff, what are your thoughts on the potential of P2E? Where do you see this space going?

Jeff: P2E is perfect for the blockchain space! We designed MegaFans to reach the 2.8 billion daily active mobile gamers and can now become the bridge between mobile eSports (P2E) and blockchain using NFTs, cryptocurrencies to reach and cross-pollinate gamers and blockchain enthusiasts in a metaverse environment. This opens additional markets that cannot be reach via FIAT currencies, in an open ledger, secure and inexpensive environment.

Roxana: Megafans is an eSports platform, how does Megafans plan to connect or bridge the crypto world with eSports events? Why is Megafans choosing to get into crypto, how will it use the blockchain network to let people play-to-earn? How essential is the crypto world for eSports spaces?

Zachary: Since Q2 2019, MegaFans has been testing our eSports platform in the real world environment, and using real market feedback to iterate and develop our platform to meet the global gaming market needs and desires. We are already bridging the crypto world with eSports, offering Bitcoin and NFTs since late in Q3 2021. And the market is responding with more core users engaging and transacting on our gaming platform. So, we already know there is a natural affinity for gamers and crypto-enthusiasts who want what MegaFans is offering today.

Gamers have been trading in game assets online for 25 years, using old methods like eBay for instance. Beyond the obvious market opportunity, there are several reasons why MegaFans chose to use blockchain technology: The current major mobile app stores have limited reach using FIAT currencies which actually prevents 30%+ of the world markets from transacting. Web 2.0 technologies didn’t allow us to transact in those markets.

Blockchain solves for that in a secure, transparent and cost effective way through our gamfi system. And our gamfi system allows for multiple types of currencies and transactions so people can play-to-earn, collect, trade and communicate with each other in a relatively safe and entertaining environment.

So, we believe crypto and NFTs are a very natural progression and effective tools that will allow the 2.8 billion DAUs in the mobile gaming space to play and transact.

Roxana: What is the strategy you would use to engage the next generation of esports on the blockchain? Can you explain this function to us?

Zachary: MegaFans is already involved with several partner projects that will attract and engage the next generation of eSports on blockchain. One major component is the Metaverse — MegaFans is integrating our eSports system into other mobile games that can be played inside different realms of the metaverse.

This is super exciting for us as it displays the interoperability of our system at an enterprise level with global scalability. Basically this means that we can integrate our SDK (Software development kit) into any mobile game, which then can display multiple tournaments to an infinite pool of players, simultaneously inside the single game in a metaverse environment, which is where the next generation of games and esports will be played.

Physically, this means that means anyone can pick up their smartphone and play in tournaments with other people from all over the world in a synchronous environment where they can play-to-earn prizes such as cryptocurrency, NFTs, other tokens, gift cards or cash prizes.

Roxana: We saw some fun NFT and Bitcoin prizes already in some of the Megafans games. How many games are now available on the Megafans platform?

Jeff: We currently have three eSports games live on the Apple and Google Play stores, but we also own several other mobile games and have two more eSports games coming out soon, one in Q4 and the other in Q1. So, our porjections are conservative as the more funding we raise,the more games we add and the more revenue is generated. Typically we can inegrate into a new game and publish it as an eSports capable game in about two weeks. So you can see the scalability is massive. And the revenues that come with it.

Roxana: Do let us know when the new games come out!

Jeff: We will announce them here and have special offers for the LPL community.

Roxana: You say your product turns any mobile game into a mobile eSport game that can reach 2.5 billion players globally, where do you get these stats from? is it reliable? And what are your plans to achieve that goal?

Zachary: The current global mobile players market now reaches 2.8 billion daily active users and is growing at a 12% per year CAGR. We verify our stats from several trusted industry sources such as AppAnnie, NewZoo, Statista, SensorTower, BusinessofApps, universities, government studies and several others. MegaFans plan is to reach as many of those players as possible and we put together a world class team of industry experts who know how to go-to-market, test, learn and optimize for scale.

We have already tested in Asia, North and South America, Europe, Middle East and India. We have published several case studies, using scientific methods and approaches to solve assumptions and industry problems with a real-world feedback loop from actual users. We also know how to localize and develop the proper regional teams for marketing, customer service, fraud and legal compliance issues, which we have foreseen.

Our projections include 10 new games, 2 million downloads and 200,000 monthly active users in 12–18 months. The revenues realized from this first phase is $3M-$5M USD in annual recurring revenue (ARR).

Roxana: What is your strategy for marketing and for quick mass adoption? Have you already planned any marketing campaign?

Zachary: Coming from the marketing and advertising side of the gaming industry with over 22 years experience, I can say that our mass adoption and marketing plan is extremely solid. We currently have our global CPA/CPI under $0.20 and our break even point on the 30 day cycle is between day 20–22.
Partnerships and white label contracts can accelerate revenues and growth exponentially. But, even as a startup platform, we project scale in 2022 to reach 2 million installs across 10 games globally with annual recurring revenue (ARR) between $3M-$5M USD.
An example of tactics include an in-house gamer and influencer launching MegaFans on Tik Tok, Twitch, Instagram/FB and Twitter to name a few. We are working with a third party loot box platform where we just released an influencer “dare” contest. We have a plethora of guerrilla and mass marketing tactics like these that we can geo and psycho-target markets and test into success at a very low cost for entry.

Roxana: Could you tell us a bit more about how NFTs will work on your platform and how it benefits NFT owners?

Colin: We have a number of ways NFT owners can benefit in our system. You can win NFTs by ranking in certain tournaments, or you can also find them in some of our games, just like Easter Eggs.
The true value of an NFT then comes in play.

The owner can sell them on an external exchange, or they can host their very own tournament and use the NFT as a top prize. The tournament holder will then get a percentage of the total entry fees for their tournament, this could be very lucrative and is a unique way MegaFans are using NFTs to reward their players.

A unique link to their tournament will be created and the player is then encouraged to promote their own tournament in the community or via Social Media to not only raise awareness of their tournament, but also advertise the MegaFans platform and bring in new users.

Roxana: Super nice to hear. Have you decided yet which networks you’ll use for NFTs?

Colin: Currently we’re using Polygon as they’re great partners. Fees are obviously a consideration when moving NFTs between accounts, so they have us covered here

Roxana: With a player base of potentially millions, can your tech stack scale to accommodate this?

Zachary: Without a doubt. All of our server code (the engine work) has been written with this as the first priority. Our development team has many years of experience in this industry and are perfecting the ultimate tech stack with the best available technology.

Using the latest cloud based hosting platforms we are utilising Microsoft services (Azure) to give us robust scalable performance. Without getting too technical, we are using other external services to help us with security and efficiency.

CloudFlare are our bouncers who will stop any potential attacks and also give us global load balancing infrastructure to our servers, this basically means that if you’re in India, you will be communicating with Indian based MegaFans servers.

Roxana: How customizable is the MegaFans SDK?

Zachary:
We have an out of the box SDK which will get 3rd party games up and running very quickly with The MegaFans Esport Engine straight out of the box, but we also offer a totally customizable option for developers to integrate.

For example, a game may not like the graphics of the leaderboard, or want to be able to add extra features. To allow for this we offer access directly to the server calls (APIs) which means we can integrate into not just Unity, but other game platforms as well. The possibilities are endless and this truly makes MegaFans a whitellabel product.

Roxana: Thank you so much for answering the questions (pre-screened + some of our internal ones). Next up, Lasersheep will take over and be the host of the LIVE QUESTIONS section from the community.

Lasersheep: Thank you Roxana! As she said, feel free to ask the Megafans team any question you like (keep it civil though lol)

How can you connect your wallet while playing on a phone? to earn while playing

Colin: The wallet won’t actually be connected to each game, but rather on an external player portal. Once connected (linked) and logged into your MegaFans account, you can then stake your MegaBucks tokens and we can keep track of of your tokens in each of our games.

So you basically make an account like with your email and have your wallet linked with your account?

Colin: Exactly. You then use the same account to log into every Megafans game, so tokens and winnings are accessible across all the games

Lasersheep: I assume if anyone has any technical issues t.me/MegaFans_eSports is the place to go right?

Colin: Yeah for sure. We also have a built in Intercom system in each game, where instant communication with our support team is available

At what stage of your roadmap are you on now and what the most excited part of the road map that team can’t wait to achieve.

Colin: The first hurdle was to create a working product in the stores and spend time testing various world wide markets. Our games are in both AppStore and PlayStore for Android. The full roadmap will be available in our WhitePaper and Deck — It’s very exciting.

Will be megafans project value 3 million usd in seed round?

Jeff: Actually, after working with the Launchpool Labs team extensively, our current valuation is up to $4M.

You have over 100'000 downloads on games, how many of your customers do you think are into crypto, and do they get the earning while playing, to maybe get them into crypto or having a wallet?

Jeff: Great question… Yes our players already understand P2E, now we are educating them on blockchain by offering cryptos and NFTs as prizes. We started offering them a few weeks ago and the participation has gone up as well as in app purchases for in game tokens. So yes, they get it and a portion will definitely cross over to become blockchain users for sure.

So where can we make our account? is it on your website

Colin: If you to the website www.megafans.com you can find the links to the store games. From there you can sign up for an account, then come back to the website to log in. The website will be built out and improved as part of our roadmap. You can also make an account in the games themselves

Lasersheep: That should wrap things up for today! Thanks for joining us!

Jeff: Thanks everyone! Great AMA today!

Matteo: Thanks everyone!

Colin: Thanks, it’s great to be working with LPL and their community

Where can people follow you to keep up to date with Megafans?

https://linktr.ee/megafans
https://t.me/MegaFans_eSports
https://t.me/MegafansAnnouncements

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