206 | Esports prediction markets

Jon Jordan talks to Forkast CEO Chris Gonsalves and Arbitrum Gaming Ventures Ethan Sy.[1:12] Ethan's history. He was previously at Play Ventures, investing in web2/3 gaming.[3:05] Chris started at Bitcoin Center. Moved to Consensys, then co-founded Community Gaming.[4:26] Esports prediction markets launched within Community Gaming, which became Forkast.[4:56] Chris believes prediction markets will take market share from all trading apps.[9:15] The worst time to invest in blockchain gaming was when everyone was investing.[12:07] Arbitrum is the solo LP in AGV, but the fund is returns-focused, not just ecosystem-focused.[15:06] How does Forkast compete with Polymarket and Kalshi etc?[16:19] Forkast is a prediction market for gamers and esports fans, focused on emerging markets.[17:55] "We think esports predictions are a huge, untapped global market."[23:25] Forkast includes rewarded quests and gamified features to encourage engagement.[24:50] Trading on the metrics of individual companies such as Apple and Tesla will be huge. [27:17] Allowing users to create their own prediction markets is tricky due to how they are resolved.[28:45] Is the 'financialization of everything' a good thing for society?[35:27] What do esports teams think about prediction markets like Forkast?

In this episode, we look at the rise of Animoca, and the rise and fall of its metaverse project The Sandbox.[0:24] This week's show focuses on the details arising from Animoca's 2022 financials.[1:11] 2022 was a long time ago, but the report also discloses more recent financial details. [4:00] Animoca's business is particularly complex, even without worrying about crypto. [6:58] The most interesting details are about The Sandbox.[8:45] Around 50% of Animoca's balance sheet is illiquid tokens such as SAND, MOCA, and EDU. [9:40] Animoca bought The Sandbox dev Pixowl for $5 million in 2018.[11:10] At one point in 2021, The Sandbox was Animoca's main financial asset.[13:35] In 2022, Animoca spent over $100 million buying game devs, which it's since written off. [20:28] Animoca bought 30% of The Sandbox's holding company from its co-founders for $125 million.[25:20] The Sandbox first launched its alpha season in 2021. It's still in alpha.[28:25] Could genAI and AI agents help resurrect The Sandbox?[31:20] Now the valuation of The Sandbox is marginal for Animoca as a whole; less than 10%.[32:29] Animoca listing on Nasdaq will be good for the whole crypto sector.

Jon Jordan talks to Skale Labs CEO Jack O’Holleran about how the Ethereum-centric L1 blockchain network is expanding to Base, helping launch mobile game PGA Tour Rise, and preparing for the explosion of onchain AI agents.[1:30] The background to mobile game PGA Tour Rise, which is launching on Skale and Base.[2:55] The game mixes golf course building tycoon strategy with golfing mini-gameplay. [5:20] Blockchain gaming is gaming with much better economic rails. [7:13] Skale is expanding to Base via its SKALE Expand v1 program[10:35] This expansion is seamless for users; they just get faster, cheaper transactions.[12:08] If this works well, Skale will expand to other EVM chains, and perhaps even Solana. [13:58] This allows users being able to deploy their liquidity across multiple chains without bridging. [17:08] "Games will be a major place for agentic commerce." The two are complementary.[20:22] a16z reckons AI agents will be a $30 trillion market. That's the potential. [22:16] Skale is also rolling out a new privacy L1 called FAIR, which will be important for agents.[26:14] "The AI movement will drive a lot of attention back into blockchain gaming."

Read the full article at https://www.blockchaingamer.biz/features/41347/top-50-blockchain-game-companies-2026/[6:55] One of the trends is the rise of games with degen mechanics, notably YGG at #3.[8:35] YGG's positioning of LOL Land as a "Casual Degen" game - a casual game with degen rewards.[10:30] These games have been a (relative) success. Mass-market web3 games haven't been.[12:55] Also in the Top 50, Cambria, Gigaverse and Fishing Frenzy use this degen mechanic.[15:37] Even Mythical Games is moving towards this with its Pulse Arena platform. [19:35] Sky Mavis' Ronin blockchain has a lot of these degen games running on it.[27:02] Dacoco's Alien Worlds is an underappreciated web3 game for its DAO focus. [35:00] CCP's EVE Frontier is the prime example of a bottom-up, fully onchain MMORPG.[41:18] Roblox-with-blockchain Hytopia launched in 2025 with 2.5 million mobile downloads.[44:27] The #1 company is MapleStory Universe dev Nexpace (Nexon).[52:04] Also ... Bitcoin game payment company ZBD announced a $40 million Series C funding round.

Polygon buys Sequence, Animoca buys SOMO, Cartridge buys Playmint. Consolidation?[0:28] Today's theme is consolidation.[1:15] Is this the trend for blockchain games companies in 2026 or something more nuanced?[2:00] Why didn't we see more consolidation in 2025?[3:46] Playmint has been bought by Cartridge. This is likely more of an R&D rollup or acquihire deal.[5:53] Playmint worked on fully decentralized games and Cartridge has an onchain game engine.[7:05] Both companies also have a shared investor Bitkraft to enable the deal. [8:40] Sequence has been acquired by Polygon Labs. It's more of a classic consolidation deal. [10:50] Polygon is repositioning itself as a payments and stablecoin infrastructure. [12:13] Sequence's focus has always been cross-chain dev tools for blockchain games.[14:59] Investors like tools. Sequence raised around $50 million.[18:50] Polygon is buying Sequence because it's a proper business with real tech and users.[22:20] Will Sequence focus less on games in future? [23:06] Animoca Brands has acquired web3 gameco SOMO. It's unclear why.[29:31] Delabs Games is shutting down idle RPG Ragnarok Libre. [35:15] Delabs Games is now an AI-first game developer so it's looking to the future.

Mythical's new Pulse platform, Boomland shuts and no more SLP rewards.[0:29] BoomLand has announced it's shutting down. [2:35] It never raised much money but it was always very good at building product.[6:50] It's another example of how hard it is to operate in the blockchain game sector. [7:48] But its game Hunters On Chain will remain live during 2026. [11:18] Due to botting, SLP is no longer a token players can earn in Axie Infinity: Origins.[14:58] This reminds us that extractive value always has been balanced by similar input costs.[20:37] Mythical Games is one of the most credible mass market blockchain game companies.[21:34] It's launching a new stablecoin-based market called Pulse Market. [22:36] Paid tournament Pulse Arena platform is also live for the Pudgy Party game.[24:02] One tournament example is paying $3 entry for the chance to win $90, all in PENGU token.[25:58] The only thing that's onchain is the fee payment system and the reward payouts.[30:53] It's difficult to balance blockchain benefits and easy UX, which is what Mythical is trying to do.

Key trends for blockchain games in 2026? Stablecoins, AI agents, FIFA Rivals, AppTokens. [1:17] You need to know what doesn't work before you can find out what does work.[3:18] We thought the value of a blockchain game would be reflected in its token price. It's not.[7:25] In 2025, we saw projects become more focused on who their specific audience is.[9:20] One of the small successes in 2025 was risk-to-earn games for degen gamers.[11:43] But mass market blockchain games are increasingly hiding their crypto elements.[14:58] Blockchain gaming as revolution has failed. Blockchain games as evolution may not.[15:28] Mythical Games is moving to a new stablecoin-based marketplace.[18:15] The success of its FIFA Rivals game in a World Cup year will be interesting to see.[20:00] Stablecoins will continue to become more significant in gaming and fintech in 2026.[24:00] Crypto tokens will kill your game fastest than they can make your game work.[26:20] Cross-chain infrastructure is now much better, which enables better UX.[28:01] AppTokens remain interesting but are difficult for developers to [31:58] AI agents were predicted to be a big trend in 2025 but they weren't.[35:54] AI agents are symbiotic with blockchain. Games could be the first test case.[39:17] AI agents have the potential to fix many of blockchain gaming's problems in 2026.[42:30] Gaming's biggest challenge at present is cost of marketing for web2 and web3.[46:50] Blockchain games are the best positioned part of gaming to take advantage of AI.

[1:58] 2025 was the end of play-to-earn cycle which started in 2021 with Axie Infinity.[3:10] However, crypto had a great year in terms of Tradfi adoption; ETFs, stablecoins, DATs etc.[7:50] Why have crypto incentives not worked for blockchain games?[11:00] Adding real-world value has overwhelmed the other reasons why people play games.[14:30] The killer feature of blockchain games shouldn't be making money but assets having value. [17:40] Tokens are dead; at least tokens that are available for trading on centralized [24:58] Do stablecoins eat all other forms of payment including in games?[26:01] Mythical Games is launching a new USDC-based NFT marketplace in 2026.[33:03] Funding for games in general and blockchain games in particular has been [36:53] In 2025, blockchain game funding was $350 million, $1 billion in 2024, $1.7 billion in 2023.[41:03] Pixels and its forthcoing Stacked rewards app is going for a mass audience.[44:44] YGG gave up on mass market guilds and is making Casual Degen games for crypto people. [49:11] (An aside - the rise of prediction markets.) [55:06] Another trend is large games like MapleStory and EVE Frontier building an ecosystem.[1:03:00] The Sandbox is launching its new community memecoin Corners platforms.[1:04:45] An example of the sector's change in 2025 is Mighty Bear Games rebranding to Wearemighty. [1:09:25] Immutable also had a significant change of focus from games to marketing in 2025.[1:13:15] The products that die in 2026 will be the ones with exactly the same strategy as 2025.

The Sandbox's new Corners platform, MocaProof, Soccerverse's FIFPRO license and BGA 2025 report.[0:37] The Sandbox launched its Corners UGC content-memecoin platform into invite-only beta.[3:00] It's an attempt to inject some dynamism into the SAND token aside from The Sandbox. [4:28] Corners lets user collate and curate weblinks on specific content topics.[6:33] Users can then buy each Corner's memecoin, spending it to upvote links.[7:24] Users are rewarded for their activity with SAND.[9:00] It's easy to criticise such projects but it's about trying new things around simple UGC.[13:00] The wider question is what does The Sandbox brand brings to this cultural launchpad?[21:25] Moca Network launched its ID and reputation system MocaProof.[22:10] It uses zero-knowledge proofs to preserve users privacy while proving your credentials. [23:44] This is gamified with a Mocat pet that you level up by verifying your actions.[27:25] Blockchain Game Alliance released its report for 2025.[30:00] Representation in MENA region (mainly the Gulf) had grown from 1% in 2021 to 20% in 2025. [32:00] 66% of people were extremely or somewhat optimistic for 2026.[35:17] 46% thought AI would be game-changing for blockchain gaming.[38:08] Spider Tanks launched on PC and mobile with Immutable. [41:14] EVE Frontier Cycle 4 is live with new manual ship controls.[43:48] Soccerverse signed a license with Fifpro to get access to 65,000 football players.

The Sandbox's new Corners platform, MocaProof, Soccerverse's FIFPRO license and BGA 2025 report.[0:37] The Sandbox launched its Corners UGC content-memecoin platform into invite-only beta.[3:00] It's an attempt to inject some dynamism into the SAND token aside from The Sandbox. [4:28] Corners lets user collate and curate weblinks on specific content topics.[6:33] Users can then buy each Corner's memecoin, spending it to upvote links.[7:24] Users are rewarded for their activity with SAND.[9:00] It's easy to criticise such projects but it's about trying new things around simple UGC.[13:00] The wider question is what does The Sandbox brand brings to this cultural launchpad?[21:25] Moca Network launched its ID and reputation system MocaProof.[22:10] It uses zero-knowledge proofs to preserve users privacy while proving your credentials. [23:44] This is gamified with a Mocat pet that you level up by verifying your actions.[27:25] Blockchain Game Alliance released its report for 2025.[30:00] Representation in MENA region (mainly the Gulf) had grown from 1% in 2021 to 20% in 2025. [32:00] 66% of people were extremely or somewhat optimistic for 2026.[35:17] 46% thought AI would be game-changing for blockchain gaming.[38:08] Spider Tanks launched on PC and mobile with Immutable. [41:14] EVE Frontier Cycle 4 is live with new manual ship controls.[43:48] Soccerverse signed a license with Fifpro to get access to 65,000 football players.