NesM Signs Publishing Service Contract for Sports Betting Game 'Spot365'

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hyowon] NesM (CEO Shin Hyunjong) announced on the 8th that it has signed a service contract with Spot, a sports broadcasting platform developed and serviced by LCC (CEO Park Youngwoong), and the sports betting game Spot365, entering the web board game business.

Spot365 is a new genre of web board game, a sports prediction game, which officially received a rating from the Game Rating and Administration Committee last October and started its service. Sports betting games became subject to the same legal regulations as existing web board games such as Go-Stop and poker within the system after the Enforcement Decree of the Game Industry Promotion Act was revised in March last year.

Accordingly, game companies such as NHN and Netmarble have also launched sports betting games, and the market is growing. In 2019, the Integrated Supervision Commission for Gambling Industry announced that the illegal sports gambling market reached 20.5 trillion KRW, and such sports betting games are expected to provide users with a healthy environment to enjoy sports.

Spot365 is a casual prediction game that offers prediction services for about 490 major sports leagues worldwide, including soccer, baseball, basketball, and volleyball. It features an easy and convenient way for users to enjoy prediction games and is available on both mobile and PC.

In particular, Spot365’s uniqueness lies in its integration with the sports broadcasting platform Spot, allowing users to cheer for the teams they predicted to win together with other users.

Since its first release in March last year, Spot has broadcast all games of the Korea Professional Baseball and Korea Professional Soccer leagues, and currently broadcasts all games of the Korean Men's Professional Basketball, Women's Volleyball, and Men's Volleyball leagues. Spot goes beyond simple game broadcasting by allowing anyone to become a commentator and broadcast.

Especially last year, due to COVID-19 preventing fans from visiting baseball stadiums, popular cheerleaders and cheer captains from each professional team, such as Park Girang, An Jihyun (Lotte), Kim Hanna (KIA), Jung Dahye (LG), and Seo Hyunsook (Doosan), conducted contactless cheering with fans through the Spot app for every game.

Famous retired players like Nippert, who could not hold retirement ceremonies, communicated with fans while watching baseball through Spot, and during the basketball season, former player Woo Jiwon currently provides commentary with cheerleaders on Spot.

Shin Hyunjong, CEO of NesM, said, “We are pleased to introduce Spot, which has been steadily loved by over 700,000 downloads and more than 250,000 members, along with the recently spotlighted sports betting games to domestic sports enthusiasts. Considering the profitability of previously released games such as SporLive, we expect to fill the gap left by 'Naval Battle 1942' while also achieving high profits.”

Meanwhile, NesM is servicing 17 mobile games, including 'Anger of Stick 5', which has recorded over 200 million downloads globally, and eight IP games from Japan’s Psikyo. It plans to expand its lineup by releasing an RPG in the first half of this year. Furthermore, it will continue to strengthen its game lineup by securing excellent domestic and international games and actively consider investments in capable developers.