Gamurs
The GAMURS Group is an esports media and tech based business. Established in December 2014, the group currently operates multiple brands focussing on the esports market, including its flagship website Dot Esports. The GAMURS Group is based out of Sydney, Australia, with further offices in Adelaide, Australia,[1] Austin, Texas, and Mumbai, India.[2][3][4]
GAMURS Group Logo | |
Type of site | News, Media, and Technology Services |
---|---|
Available in | English, Portuguese, and Spanish |
Founder(s) | Riad Chikhani, Phillip Luu, Carl Oehme, Halim Yoo, and Malik Akl |
Key people | Riad Chikhani (Co-Founder & CEO) |
URL | gamurs |
Users | 10,000,000 |
Launched | 14 February 2016 |
History
In 2010 whilst in high school, both Riad Chikhani and Phillip Luu established Rune Gear, an online portal for the game RuneScape at the age of 14. They successfully sold the business at the age of 17 in order to focus on school. This portal motivated the pair to develop a similar business but for a wider variety of games, which would later become the GAMURS Group.
The GAMURS Group began as a social network for gamers after joining the NRMA Jumpstart program run by the Slingshot Accelerator.[5] Shortly after the program ended, the company raised $500,000 in a seed round to accelerate development of the platform. After multiple attempts at developing a viable community to connect gamers together, the company realised that the traction they were receiving was nowhere near enough for a social network to succeed. Using this knowledge, the GAMURS Group acquired two platforms, TeamFind and CSGOTeamFinder with a goal to merge both websites to build a comprehensive team and player finding website. Both websites merged on February 14, 2016, providing team and player finding functionality for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends. The GAMURS Group raised an additional $500,000 in another seed round in April 2016.[6]
On April 26, 2016, the GAMURS Group acquired esports publication websites eSports-Nation.com, GoldPer10, and eSports.guru in an effort to expand its offerings for the market[7] Once the acquisitions were completed, the three platforms were merged making the GAMURS Group a comprehensive content provider for titles such as Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Halo 5: Guardians, Hearthstone and Overwatch.
On June 11, 2016, the GAMURS Group launched EsportsWikis, an online encyclopedia dedicated to esports.[8] On August 26, 2016 they acquired CSGOSquad, a Counter Strike ranking database which they later merged into another one of their platforms, CS:GO-Stats.[9] On September 19, 2016 the GAMURS Group acquired esports news outlet SplitPush.net.[10] On October 28, 2016, the GAMURS Group acquired Dot Esports from The Daily Dot.[11][12][13] This acquisition solidified the GAMURS Group's media presence, with Dot Esports becoming the companies flagship platform. The company eventually merged all media publications that they owned into Dot Esports by the end of March 2017.
Across the GAMURS Group's history, the company has engaged in an acquisition approach for growth. Whilst notably acquiring multiple media and technology platforms in the space, the company has also been known to acquire social media profiles in an effort to develop greater distribution networks.
References
- "Gamurs". 12 December 2018.
- "Social networking site Gamurs launch attracts 6000 gaming enthusiasts - SmartCompany". 21 July 2015.
- "Gamurs is a new all-in-one social network for … well, gamers". 30 June 2015.
- Ainomugisha, Gerald (22 April 2015). "How Gamurs aka Facebook for gamers has raised $350,000 in just 2 weeks".
- "Gamurs".
- "Victorian start-ups to get $10 million boost as Slingshot acquires AngelCube". Yolanda Redrup. 22 March 2016.
- "Social network Gamurs has acquired eSports Nation, GoldPer10, and eSports Guru - The Esports Observer". 26 April 2016.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-09-20. Retrieved 2016-09-16.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Dot Esports - Global Esports News, Analysis, Tournament Coverage, and More". Dot Esports.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-09-19. Retrieved 2016-09-19.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Gamurs acquires Dot Esports". Gamurs. 28 October 2016.
- Bräutigam, Thiemo (Oct 21, 2016). "Daily Dot Esports section sold to media network Gamurs". The Esports Observer.
- "Gamurs is merging into Dot Esports".