Forward-Looking Statements
This Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Annual Report”) contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this Annual Report may be forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are contained principally in the sections entitled “Risk Factors,” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”, but are also contained elsewhere in this Annual Report. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “may,” “might,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “could,” “would,” “intends,” “targets,” “projects,” “contemplates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.
You should refer to the Item 1A. “Risk Factors” section of this Annual Report for a discussion of important factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on our company and our financial condition and results of operations. The forward-looking statements in this Annual Report are only predictions, and we may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations included in our forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Because forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. The events and circumstances reflected in our forward-looking statements may not be achieved or occur and actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements.
These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this Annual Report. While we may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we have no current intention of doing so except to the extent required by applicable law. You should therefore not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this Annual Report.
Item 1. Business
Mobile Global Esports Inc. (“MOGO” or “Mogo,” or the “Company”) was organized in March of 2021 to carry on and expand an esports business (the “Business”) started by Sports Industry of India (“SII”), in 2016. Through a series of contracts, the rights to the Business were assigned to MOGO by SII and its affiliates beginning in October of 2021. MOGO is now building out and expanding the business created by SII, which is focused on the rapidly-growing esports industry, with special emphasis on India and other South Asian markets. The Indian market for esports, and particularly university esports events in India, represent, in management’s opinion, one of the largest and fastest growing esports markets in the world.
SII is an American branding, marketing and sports promotion company that, through subsidiaries and affiliates primarily in India and Pakistan, enters into exclusive long-term arrangements with universities for the purpose of promoting, expanding and commercializing university sports programs, creating professional opportunities for university athletes and alumni and developing and marketing university and event-branded merchandise. The SII esports business, which has now been transferred to and is operated by MOGO, is the only business in India to organize and sponsor an officially-sanctioned national championship for university esports. SII holds a 12.98% minority common share interest in MOGO, and thus has no controlling interest in MOGO.
Esports are the competitive playing of video games by amateur and professional teams for cash and other prizes. Esports typically take the form of organized, multiplayer video games that include real-time strategy and competition, including virtual fights, first-person shooter and multiplayer online battle arena games. Esports are defined as competitive games of skill, timing, knowledge, experience, practice, attention and teamwork, but not games of chance or luck. Mobile esports are defined as esports that are streamed on an electronic esports platform and played by individuals or teams on mobile devices, usually smartphones. Competitors participate at large in-person events, small in-person events and virtually from home or computer cafes. Interest in esports is rapidly growing. In 2020, the global audience for gaming video content, including esports, grew to 1.2 billion viewers, an 18 percent increase from 2019, according to Statista, as gaming streams became a popular social activity and distraction during coronavirus-related lockdowns. A DataProt report in January 2023 placed the number of gamers at 1.7 billion.
Management believes that MOGO is the first company specifically focused on mobile esports to become a publicly listed company in the United States.
MOGO’s esports business began in 2016 when SII introduced esports to the Association of Indian Universities (“AIU”), an academic and sports body that represents 854 major universities. AIU sanctioned esports as a championship event in a unique and exclusive 10-year renewable agreement with SII. SII has assigned most of its esports rights under these and other agreements involving esports to MOGO under a series of contracts between the two companies. SII licensed to MOGO exclusive rights to develop, organize, promote and monetize mobile esports events in collaboration with AIU and with a second major university sports association, Elite University Sports Alliance of India Pvt. Ltd. (“EUSAI”), a for-profit subsidiary of SII. EUSAI itself has direct contracts with 92 leading Indian universities pursuant to which EUSAI is granted exclusive rights to organize and monetize a range of sports, including esports. Although any AIU or EUSAI members may choose to not participate in MOGO’s esports business, the combination of AIU and EUSAI’s member universities potentially gives MOGO access to students attending these 854 Indian universities.
The first SII esports championship was held at Lovely Professional University (LPU) in 2017, the second at Maharshi Dayanand University in 2018 and the third at SRM Institute of Science and Technology in 2019. The 2020 championships were cancelled during the covid lockdowns. MOGO sponsored the 2021-2022 championships at LPU in April 2022. During the period of May through December 2021, MOGO, with the help of SII and SII’s subsidiaries pursuant to their mutual contracts, organized and commercialized a total of 27 virtual esports tournaments in India. These events included inter- and intra-university competitions that reached an aggregate audience of over 450,000 viewers (most of whom were added in the last quarter of calendar year 2021, reflecting recent momentum in interest in university esports), according to SII’s YouTube channel analytics. There are 54 events that have been held or are scheduled to be held through the 2022-23 academic year, including the National University Mobile Esports Championship.
Management expects commercialization of these events will be similar to events in more developed esports markets, such as South Korea, China and the U.S. Revenue is expected to come from sponsorships, advertising, subscriptions, tickets to future events, branded merchandise and fees. In addition, monetization of the data collected through MOGO’s game platform is expected to provide additional revenues. In the past events, the viewers’ data was collected by third-party streaming services, such as YouTube and Facebook. Once the players and viewers are routed through MOGO’s proprietary game and social media platform, MOGO anticipates collecting the data (names, phone numbers, email addresses, university affiliation, etc.), processing the data, combining the data with other commercially-available data sets and offering the data to the markets following strict government privacy guidelines, particularly since a subset of our users will likely be underage first-year university students. Management believes that the value of the data may become one of the dominant revenue elements in MOGO’s business model.
MATERIAL AGREEMENTS
The material agreements summarized below are incorporated by reference to the Company’s Amendment 3 to Form S-1 filed on February 13, 2023. Such summaries by necessity do not include all provisions of such agreements, but rather are intended to fairly present the terms and conditions we believe to be material from a business and operating perspective.
The SII-MOGO Founders Agreement and Supplements Thereto
MOGO entered into a Founders Agreement (“Founders Agreement”) dated as of July 1, 2021 with Sports Industry of India, Inc. (“SII”) and thereafter three supplements thereto with SII and two Indian subsidiaries of SII, Elite University Sports Alliance of India Private Limited, (“EUSAI”) and ESI Sports India Private Limited (“ESI”): a Supplement to Founders Agreement (“First Supplement”) dated as of October 15, 2021 with SII, a Second Supplement to Founders Agreement (“Second Supplement”) dated January 14, 2022 with SII, EUSAI and ESI, and a Third Supplement to Founders Agreement dated February 22, 2022 (“Third Supplement”) with SII, EUSAI and ESI. SII, EUSAI and ESA sometimes are collectively referred to herein as “Licensor,” the First Supplement, Second Supplement and Third Supplement sometimes are collectively referred to herein as the “Supplements,” and the Founders Agreement, as supplemented by the Supplements, is sometimes collectively referred to herein as the “Supplemented Founders Agreement.” Pursuant to the Supplemented Founders Agreement, Licensor has granted to MOGO a license to commercially exploit most esports rights licensed or granted to SII by the Association of Indian Universities (“AIU”) or by Indian universities pursuant to existing or future agreements, as more fully described below.
The following sets forth a summary of the material terms of the Supplemented Founders Agreement. Capitalized terms below that are not previously defined have the meanings set forth at the end of this summary.
1. Founders Agreement
Pursuant to the Founders Agreement, MOGO issued 2,650,000 restricted common shares of MOGO to SII in consideration for the amounts expended by SII to develop and form MOGO, including the expense of providing certain consulting services described below, the waivers and license of certain intellectual property rights described below, the grant of certain first negotiation and refusal rights described below, and the additional price of one dollar.
Consulting Services: SII has agreed to provide consulting services to MOGO during the term commencing March 11, 2021 through December 31, 2022 and thereafter until the first to occur of June 30, 2023 or the date on which MOGO receives gross proceeds from financings since its formation of at least $5,000,000, with respect to: (i) esports opportunities in the Territory (defined as India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan); (ii) global esports opportunities with universities; (iii) global esports opportunities with the diaspora of individuals born in the Territory and their descendants; (iv) how to organize, manage and promote esports tournaments and other esports events; (v) sponsorship, production and branding opportunities in the Territory; (vi) MOGO’s administrative, corporate and organizational development; (vii) introductions to licensed investment bankers, auditors, counsel and other professionals, including government officials and administrators in the education and sports associations; and (viii) introductions to individuals and companies that could assist MOGO to implement its business plan. SII may provide similar services to others. The Company raised over $5,000,000 during 2022 and thus SII is not currently required to provide consulting services to MOGO.
Waivers: On its behalf and on behalf of its subsidiaries, predecessors and affiliates (collectively, “SportsCo”), SII waived the following rights:
1. In perpetuity, any rights it might have in and to the contributions to MOGO’s business, financial, legal and marketing plans contributed during the period from prior to the formation of MOGO through December 31, 2022 by Special Persons (each of Kiki Benson, Sunny Bhandarkar, Pranav Prabhu, David Pross, Muhammad Jamal Qureshi, Kenin M. Spivak, Muzammal Khan Wazeeri, Richard Whelan and any other individual mutually agreed in writing by the parties to the Founders Agreement to be a Special Person) or any other individuals who participate in providing SII’s consulting services to MOGO pursuant to the Founders Agreement.
2. Until December 31, 2022, unless extended by mutual agreement, any covenants in favor of SII are waived that might restrict the right of each Special Person to (i) consult with MOGO, (ii) serve as a member of MOGO’s Board of Directors, and/or (iii) serve as an officer, employee or representative of MOGO. Such covenant will continue in perpetuity for David Pross.
License: On its behalf and on behalf of its subsidiaries, SII granted to MOGO a non-exclusive license in perpetuity to utilize the written and oral contributions made by the Special Persons or any other individuals who participate in providing SII’s consulting services to MOGO.
First Negotiation Rights: Provided MOGO complies with the Founders Agreement and secures any necessary financing, SII granted the following first negotiation rights to MOGO:
Until June 30, 2023, in each instance in which SII seeks to organize individual esports games or a discrete esports tournament with universities in the Territory, SII will negotiate first with MOGO to act as SII’s principal licensee, co-venturer or service provider with respect to organizing the foregoing, seeking sponsors, providing all required technology and otherwise licensing and distributing program content created in connection therewith, prior to entering into negotiations with any company to do the foregoing. This right does not pertain to “Excluded Games,” which are defined as games or tournaments that would be transmitted or streamed by brand-name networks, such as Sony Ten, NEO Sports, ESPN, DSport, DDSports, Star Sports, Fox Sports, Netflix, youtube.com, twitch.com or other identifiable linear or streaming networks. As to these and similar platforms, both MOGO and SII are free to separately negotiate and stream esports games and programing, including content licensed to MOGO by SII under these collective agreements. Rights held by SII involving competition between Pakistani and Indian teams are retained by SII, and have not been licensed to MOGO. But MOGO is free to develop its own esports content revolving around such competition.
Refusal Right: With respect to any individual game or tournament for which SII and MOGO do not reach an agreement pursuant to MOGO’s first negotiation rights, provided MOGO secures any necessary financing with respect thereto, SII will not accept an offer from a third party to provide the services MOGO offered to provide if the terms thereof are less favorable to SII than MOGO’s last written offer without first giving to MOGO a right of refusal. This refusal right will expire on September 30, 2023, and does not pertain to Excluded Games.
Certain Restrictions on MOGO: MOGO may not directly or indirectly engage in communications or other conduct that interferes in the rights of SII or its subsidiaries under its agreements with AIU or universities in the Territory. In addition, until the second to occur of the completion of any games or tournaments undertaken by MOGO pursuant to the Founders Agreement or December 31, 2023, MOGO will not, except on behalf of, at the request of, or with the approval of SII: (i) employ or solicit the employment of any person who is then, or has been within six months prior thereto, an employee of, or advisor to, SII or its subsidiaries, or (ii) do any act or thing to cause, bring about, or induce any interference with, disturbance to, or interruption of any of the then-existing relationships of SII or its subsidiaries with any vendor, customer, client, partner, employee, licensee, licensor, consultant or supplier to SII or its subsidiaries.
SII’s Reserved Rights: All rights not specifically licensed or otherwise granted by SII to MOGO are reserved by and owned by SII.
Release: As a material inducement to the Special Persons to continue to contribute to the development of SII or its subsidiaries and MOGO, except as specified below, to the maximum extent permitted by law, each of SII and MOGO on its behalf and on behalf of all companies owned or controlled by such party, and on behalf of all persons claiming through such party and such companies, and (to the extent permitted by law) on behalf of its and each of their respective owners, directors, officers, agents, representatives, employees and spouses, forever releases and discharges the Special Persons and any companies providing their services and their respective owners, directors, officers, agents, representatives, employees and their spouses from all claims, rights demands, damages and causes of action whatsoever, whether known or unknown, liquidated or unliquidated, contingent or not contingent, matured or not matured, which have arisen or may have arisen or may arise from the beginning of time through the end of time from or related to: (i) the negotiation, drafting, execution or performance of the Founders Agreement; (ii) the negotiation, drafting or execution of any agreement (oral or written) contemplated by the Founders Agreement; or (iii) decisions, acts or omissions that are asserted to be the result of any conflict between that Special Person’s interests in SII and its subsidiaries and that Special Person’s interests in MOGO. Each releasing person agrees that his or its release extends to all claims of every nature and kind, known or unknown, suspected or unsuspected, vested or contingent.
The release does not include: (i) any conflicts that do not pertain to matters described or referenced in the Founders Agreement; (ii) any breach of contract or duty after the date of the execution of the Founders Agreement, other than a breach involving potential conflicts that is released above; (iii) any claim that arises from the failure of a Person to accurately in all material respects describe that Person’s interest in the parties to the Founders Agreement, if requested to do so by a party thereto; or (iv) any conflict that as a matter of unwaivable law may not be released.
Other: The Founders Agreement includes standard representations and warranties, indemnification and similar provisions.
2. Supplements
With respect to Participating Universities, SII on its behalf and on behalf of Licensor licensed to MOGO, to the extent Licensor has or acquires such rights and subject to any exceptions or limitations in the rights granted to Licensor of which Licensor notifies MOGO: (i) during the Term, except as otherwise provided in the Supplements, (A) the exclusive, worldwide right and license to develop, organize, create, record, finance, manufacture, license, distribute, advertise and promote esports tournaments and games and television (including all forms of technology by which end users can hear audio and/or see visuals with or without a display device) content based on or incorporating MOGO Games and (B) solely with respect to MOGO Products and licensing, distribution, advertising and promotion of MOGO Products, the worldwide non-exclusive right to use Team Logos and Name and Likeness rights, including the right to provide hosts and commentators with respect thereto; (ii) during and after the Term in perpetuity, the exclusive rights to create derivations, compilations, remakes, edited versions, translations and the like, as well as advertising and promotions based on or incorporating MOGO Content created during the Term; (iii) during and after the Term in perpetuity, the exclusive, worldwide right and license to license, distribute, advertise and promote MOGO Products and to exercise Sponsorship Rights with respect thereto; and (iv) during and after the Term, the non-exclusive right to use Team Logos and Name and Likeness for athletes who participate in the Project (A) globally to promote MOGO Merchandise manufactured during the Term and (B) solely for corporate activities for which there are is no charge to users, in MOGO corporate websites, investor relations and similar corporate activities of MOGO to promote MOGO. Each initial use of Team Logos and Name and Likeness pursuant to the above is subject to Licensor’s approval.