The Business of Play: eSports, Betting, and Infrastructure

This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. 2%. That's the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator

available. I'm Michael Easter. And on my podcast, 2%, I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world.

Put yourself through some hardships and you will come out on the other side, a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's T.W.O. percent on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what y'all say. Yup, that's me, Clifford Taylor IV.

You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show.

This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes,

follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. way and we'll share with you the magic of international football, all leading up to the 2026 World Cup. Together, we'll find out why of all the unimportant things, football, soccer is the most important.

Listen to the away end with Daniel Auerkon and John Green on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. EARNERS, what's up? Look, money is something we all deal with, but financial literacy is what helps turn income into real wealth. On each episode of the podcast, EARN

We break down the conversations you need to understand money, investing, and entrepreneurship. From stocks to real estate to credit, business, and generational wealth, our goal is simple. Make financial literacy accessible for everyone. Because when you understand the system, you can start to build within it.

Open your free iHeart radio app, search Earn Your Leisure, and listen now. episode they put on Lizzie McGuire 2am video on demand this guy's 2am whatever time it is Lizzie McGuire and I'm wild a wild back you were with it was like a first like closet moment for me where I was like you're like I don't

feel like she's hot like the rest of them no no no I was like she's beautiful but I'm appreciating her in a different way than these boys are I'm not like listen to last school trees this on the I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast

So, particularly to let the things we talked about with iRoblox and Fortnite, you know, I have little kids and for them, you know, they think nothing about spending real dollars to have dollars in the game, right? And I wonder what your perspective is on how they will grow up, you know, being, let's say, sub-12, sub-12 years old, and I don't know if you have kids or not, but you study this. So how, how will they grow up in a world? How were their, their thinking be structured around value?

So is me having a whole 12 foot wall, 10 foot high full of sneakers and boxes of Rick, you know, old Jordans, they will have a virtual world of, you know, digital chachkies, like, you know, gems that they got in 2020.

20, you know, it's like, how, how will they think about these things? Yeah, it's a great question. And so we're investors in StockX out of fund one, right? And if you're a sneakerhead, you've got kicks, you've been on go,

you've been on StockX, you don't see your sneakers as a utility, right? You see them as a luxury item. Um, and, and what we saw in this last 10 years of innovation, internet space, particularly around a gig economy in ownership.

Like the fact that you would say, yeah, I'm just gonna put my crib on Airbnb. Like people were crazy when Airbnb came out. People were like, are you insane?

You're gonna stay at a stranger's house? You're gonna let somebody stay in your crib? Like, nah, that's not possible. That's not gonna happen, right?

And now it's like, I'd rather stare at an Airbnb than a hotel, right? And so the idea of ownership is changing rapidly in our society.

And again, I go back, it's generational change. What was cool for my parents' generation was a Ford Mustang, a muscle car. Like that was who you were,

that representative piece of your identity. This generation grew up and was like, who cares about a car? I can take an Uber anywhere,

it's gonna cost me less. I don't have to worry about maintenance and parking and alternate side. I'll just take Ubers everywhere

and it's gonna cost me less on a monthly basis. So this leads us to a game native generation. So Fortnite generates $2.1, $2.3 billion a year selling skins. That's it.

That's their business model. Why? Because if you buy an NFL jersey or you buy a Marvel character,

jersey to skin your character in the game, that's the representation to your peer group. No different than owning that Mustang or having a pair of Yeezys

or having a skin in Fortnite. So when people talk about, Oh, I don't believe in NFTs. This stuff is fleeting.

I'm like, you're not in touch with reality. You don't understand how you view digital assets. You might have dope artwork on your wall. Well, guess what?

I got an NFT in my virtual world. It's no different. It's the exact same thing. It represents who you are.

It's part of your identity. And so, you know, we're very bullish on the NFT space. And I think even more so digital has this unique opportunity

that we're gonna see emerge in fractional ownership. So in the same way we had it to gig economy, the same way you treated an asset and you were willing to sell it or lease it,

digital opens up completely new opportunities. And so when you talk about NFTs, oh, I created an original piece of art as an artist, I'm not gonna say I did, and I sell that

and now it gets resold for 10X because there's a smart contract associated with it. I get a portion of that use, that secondary transaction

or the third flip of that item as it goes up over time. So it unlocks additional value. The same way StockX unlocks value,