Philadelphia 76ers Star Ben Simmons Is Latest Athlete To Invest In FaZe Clan

Esports company FazeClan announced today that two-time NBA All-Star Ben Simmons has joined a Series B funding round that has yet to close. 

The Philadelphia 76ers forward is the latest basketball player to invest in FazeClan following New Orleans Pelican’s Josh Hart, Miami Heat’s Meyers Leonard, and Denver Nuggets’ Jamal Murray. Esports have been a hot destination for athletes to place their cash. Kevin Durant, Michael Jordan, Alex Rodriguez and David Beckham are among those with stakes in competitive gaming companies. European soccer stars Antoine Griezmann of Barcelona and Mesut Ozil of Arsenal have each started their own esports teams.

FazeClan was ranked by Forbes last November as the fourth most valuable esports company. Terms of Simmons’ investment were not disclosed.

“My role with phase now goes much deeper than the initial investment,” says Simmons, adding that he was drawn to the company as a teenager because of its cool brand and came to believe in its family gaming culture. “I am going to bring it back to Australia and bring an international side to it. I also want to bring more kids into it.”

As a teenager in Australia, Simmons had his sights set on playing Call of Duty for a living for FaZe, letting the dream die as he sprouted into his 6-foot, 10-inch frame and chose to pursue a career in basketball, selected first overall in the 2016 NBA draft by the Sixers. 

Speaking by phone from his Philadelphia home — a week after a knee surgery that cut short his time in the NBA bubble in Orlando, Simmons recalled how he first connected with FaZe members through social media and started playing online with FaZe co-owner Thomas “Temperrr” Oliveira, now a good friend. Soon he was given the tag of ‘Ambassador’, reserved for celebrity influencers, and repping the brand’s popular merchandise on social media and in the NBA. This past March, he participated in the company’s #Fight2Fund tournament joining gamers, celebrities, and other athletes, including fellow NBA star Paul George of the Los Angeles Clippers and NFL star JuJu Smith-Schuster of the Pittsburgh Steelers, in a four-week Call of Duty battle that raised nearly $125,000 for pandemic relief funds.

As a gamer, Simmons, also announced as “FaZe Simmo” as of today, has gone by the name “SimmoTheSavage” and frequently livestreams while playing Call of Duty on Twitch to an audience over 47,700. Now that he’s injured, he has a little more time for it.

“I have been gaming a lot at home while rehabbing,” says Simmons, who describes himself as a competitive gamer. “But I was gaming in the bubble, too. I brought my own travel gaming set-up. I definitely see the similarities in mindset in basketball players and gamers and the amount of time each puts into their craft. We are both very productive, creative and passionate people.”

The 24-year old, who Forbes estimates made $12 million during the last year of his four-year rookie deal with the Sixers, has been stepping up his investment activity. In early August he joined a group that includes singer John Legend that put $18 million into a Philadelphia-based credit card startup. He also served as executive producer of the ESPN sports documentary, “The Australian Dream,” about indigenous Australian Rules Football’s star Adam Goodes’ experience fighting racism on the field.

Simmons took a $2 million haircut on his salary this year because of the pandemic but also gets paid an estimated $6 million endorsing Nike
NKE
, Coca-Cola
KO
’s SmartWater and Beats by Dre. His new five-year playing contract that kicks in next season is slated to be worth upwards of $170 million, with his first year take-home pay dependent upon a salary cap that is still up in the air. He’ll be playing for a new head coach too — the Sixers fired Brett Brown yesterday after the team was swept in the first round of the NBA playoffs.

FaZe Clan’s other celebrity investors include rappers Offset and Lil Yachty. In April, the company closed a $40 million funding round led by music mogul Jimmy Iovine and NTWRK, a mobile e-commerce platform, co-founded by his son, Jamie. Individual backers include music industry veterans Guy Oseary, Sylvia Rhone, Troy Carter, entertainers Pitbull, DJ Paul, and actor Chris O’Donnell.

Forbes valued FaZe at $240 million in its most recent ranking of the most valuable esports organizations. The company is reliant on its lifestyle brand and gaming content more than its esports business for generating revenue. Though last year it joined the esports franchise trend, opting to license its name to Atlanta Esports Venture’s Call of Duty League team, Atlanta FaZe. This month the company hosted a Valorant tournament in partnership with Riot Games. The event had 5 million unique views and nearly 200,000 concurrent tuning in at its high point, according to Trink, adding that the new sponsorships around it helped make up for pandemic-related lost revenue. The company currently boasts seven-figure deals with Nissan and Gfuel to sponsor its content and recently reached a milestone 1 billion views on YouTube.

“His investment is significant not just in terms of dollars, but in how he can use his persona to impact the business,” says Lee Trink, CEO and co-owner of FaZe Clan. “Ben’s an OG gamer here, was part of the FaZe community long before he had fame and money. This is a continuation of his involvement with us.”