Topdog, a New York startup building real-money multiplayer skill games, has raised a $2.5 million seed round led by Boston Seed Capital. The Raine Group, Bullpen Capital, Versus Ventures, Spoondrift Capital and Permit Ventures also invested. Together with a $1.6 million pre-seed from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Topdog has raised $4.1 million.
Head-to-head, in real time
Most real-money skill games are asynchronous. You play your round, someone else plays theirs later, and the scores get compared. Topdog runs turn-by-turn multiplayer, with players competing against each other at the same time. Its first titles are sports-flavored: Basketball Hustle, 21 Hustle, Tilt and Pinfall.
“Real money skill-gaming should be no different” from the multiplayer gaming people already expect everywhere else, says co-founder Aman Agarwal.
Real-time multiplayer with real money on the line is hard to run. Topdog built its own stack for matchmaking, liquidity, payments, fraud detection and live operations. The hard part is making sure there’s always someone to play against, at the right stake, right away.
Fantasy sports DNA
The backers point to the obvious audience. FanDuel co-founder Nigel Eccles is involved, along with Revenant VC founder Ryan Moore, gaming consultant Dustin Gouker and early investors in DraftKings and FanDuel. Agarwal and co-founder Jatin Narang have more than a decade of combined skill-gaming experience.
The seed money goes into user acquisition and more multiplayer sports games. Topdog is aimed at sports fans looking for something competitive in the hours when no games are on.