Breakout Gaming “Crowdsale” Falls Short

Breakout Gaming has said that the results of its “crowdsale” were disappointing due to “bad timing.”

Breakout Gaming, the first ever gaming platform to be powered by its very own decentralized crypto-currency, the Breakout Coin (BRO), has reported a disappointing initial “crowdsale.” The crowdsale, which is essentially a crowdfunding scheme for the crypto-currency business community, raised just 387 bitcoin (around $136,000 at the current exchange rate); well short of its 1,000 bitcoin target. The fundraising initiative also doubled as an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), which is the term applied to the introduction of a new digital currency (in this case the BRO) into the market.

Of 14 million BRO in existence, a total of 4.5 million were up for offer during the ICO, with one bitcoin equal to 6,000 BRO. A further 9.5 million BRO were held back by the site as part of a “public wallet,” with 7 million reserved for gradual free distribution to players through incentive-based programs, and the remaining 2.5 million to be held for “developers, celebrities, artists, executives, investors, etc…” The ICO began on 21st October and formally ended at midnight on 19th November. 

Cool Story, BRO…

The Breakout Gaming project was announced mid-September and is an attempt to haul bitcoin gaming out of the shadows and introduce it to a more mainstream, and regulated, market (the company is pursuing a Kahnawake gaming license). As such, Breakout Gaming has recruited a Who’s Who of top “old school” poker players as ambassadors, with the likes of Johnny Chan, Huck Seed, Jennifer Harman and Ted Forrest giving it their backing. Along with poker and casino gaming, the platform will offer fantasy sports, and customers will be able to use bitcoin and regular currencies to buy breakout chips, as well as BRO.

“Breakout coin will give a lot of people the opportunity to being able to use a crypto-currency, people who may not have had the opportunity or the trust to find out what this is all about,” head of marketing Gian Perroni told CoinDesk.

“The difference is that we’re building a gaming property whose sole purpose is to support the value of the coin. What will make the coin successful is if the gaming is successful, and what makes the gaming successful is the fact that we have a blend of excellent products and very, very good experienced personnel.” 

Bad Timing

Perroni is supremely confident in the project and believes that the somewhat underwhelming response to the ICO was simply a matter of bad timing.

“When we first launched our crowdsale bitcoin was in a free fall, which cast a chill with potential purchasers, not only for our project but for the crypto community in general,” he said.

However, Ted Forrest has suggested that it is the newness and relative complexity of the process that could be the company’s biggest stumbling block. “Unless people are familiar and comfortable with how to buy crypto-currency, they are finding the process of first buying bitcoin and then buying BRO coin somewhat cumbersome to the point that too many just give up in frustration,” he said. “As we all know, the attention span of most gamblers is not the longest.”

Breakout gaming has yet to publicize a launch date.