Loco, an independent esports and live-streaming platform, is building a suite of Web3 products that will bring innovative fan experiences utilising a custom Avalanche Subnet. Loco recently raised $42 million, which was the largest Series A round in Indian and South East Asian gaming history. The platform has also partnered with other gaming publishers like Krafton, Activision Blizzard and Riot Games.
Loco’s Avalanche Subnet and ongoing product campaign mark yet another new chapter in the story of Avalanche rapidly expanding in Asia. Recently, Chinese technology giant Alibaba and Japanese gaming trailblazer GREE each announced Avalanche initiatives. Like GREE, Loco will run its own Avalanche validators, reflecting a deep commitment to securing and building on the network.
Loco targets two key markets with its first Web3 product: Collectibles and Fantasy Sports
The fantasy sports industry generated over $22.7B in revenue in 2022 – a figure projected to grow to $48B by 2028. Digital collectibles are the fastest-growing sector of the $400B+ global collectibles industry. Despite this explosive growth, fantasy applications have largely failed to seize the Web3 opportunity.
Loco’s initial products will be designed to give back control to the user, bringing collectibles to the fantasy gaming experience. The Web3 initiatives will allow fans to express their fandom and put them in the role of talent managers and scouts, helping them leverage their knowledge and adding a new exciting layer to their watching experience. Viewers who enjoy watching their favourite creators can now directly engage in the action by building the best entertainment roster or esports team and competing with other fans in fantasy games on these platforms. These collectibles will be unique, scarce and will have publicly verifiable ownership.
Loco chooses Avalanche for its subnet functionality, high performance and reliability
The commitment to building on Avalanche comes as part of Loco’s efforts to provide the Indian gaming community with high-engagement, fun products that they can own. An Avalanche Subnet allows Loco to tailor the properties of a custom blockchain to its apps and scale to a user base of hundreds of millions of customers, all while keeping network fees and transaction latency low.
With the recent Avalanche upgrade to Avalanche Warp Messaging (AWM), Loco’s users will also be able to freely trade Loco Legends collectibles with other assets on Avalanche. Additionally, Loco will receive support from Ava Labs through the multiverse incentive program, helping launch its collectibles marketplaces.
Loco co-founders Anirudh Pandita and Ashwin Suresh said, “We are excited to begin 2023 with this partnership with Ava Labs. We are aligned with Avalanche in our vision of bringing fun games to millions of users. These skill-based games will allow fans to deepen their connection with their favourite creators and help amplify the enjoyment they derive from watching digital content. Our endeavour is to provide users with reliable and secure platforms to store, buy, and sell digital assets while ensuring that the user experience is simple yet fun.”
Ava Labs president John Wu said, “Web3 gaming is a fantastic use case for Avalanche Subnets as the only solution capable of consistently handling heavy traffic without causing user experience to suffer in the form of long wait times or high fees. Pioneers like Loco are breaking new ground with ways to use digital collectibles for both fan engagement and applications layered on top that was previously not possible.”