Entain has announced it’s closing the B2C portion of its esports betting subsidary, Unikrn. Unikrn was a prominent sponsor of the Paris Major.
Sports betting company Entain has announced the closure of the B2C portion of its esports venture, Unikrn. In an announcement this weekend, Entain stated that it was repositioning Unikrn away from consumer betting services.
In messages and emails to affiliates, Entain explained that it was shutting down the Unikrn affiliate program. Additionally, Unikirn will stop taking player deposits today (Monday, September 9).
Visiting the site today will prompt an error message reading: “We are on pause in your area.” The message continues, “Unikrn is not currently available where you are — but we hope we can play together soon.”
In a statement released over the weekend, Entain explained that it was: “repositioning our esports offering and scaling back our direct-to-consumer operations.”
“This is to ensure that our business is structured as effectively as possible, and so that we can best deliver on our strategy and growth plans. Unikrn has developed an industry-leading offer around esports betting, and we see significant opportunities to leverage these capabilities through our existing global brands.”
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Entain is the parent company behind UK high street betting brands such as Ladbrokes, Coral, and international bookies Sportingbet, BetMGM, Ladbrokes Australia, Eurobet, TAB New Zealand, and others.
Unikrn was founded in 2014 by former Microsoft Ventures general manager Rahul Sood and Karl Flores. In 2016, they sponsored CS:GO team BIG. In 2020, they garnered controversy after being forced to settle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over money earned via a token sale of their Ethereum-based cryptocurrency UnikoinGold.
In August 2021, Unikrn was acquired by Entain, before being relaunched in 2022 with an expanded user base.
In March 2023, the company announced a multi-year global partnership with tournament operator BLAST. This culminated in the sponsorship of the BLAST.tv Paris Major, in which Unikrn’s branding featured heavily. It’s unknown whether this partnership will continue.
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