The Los Angeles esports hub just keeps getting bigger.

Los Angeles has long been a massive gaming hub. Industry giants like Activision Blizzard Inc. and Naughty Dog are based in Santa Monica, as is Griffin Gaming Partners, the largest gaming venture fund in the world (based on assets under management). Riot Games has its main campus located in West Los Angeles. According to Pitchbook, the Southern California esports corridor usurped 20% of all funding into North American esports companies in 2024 – California as a whole took 30% of North American esports funding.

It looks like Los Angeles is extending its reach. M80, a Santa Monica-based esports and gaming platform, announced in early December it would acquire the New York-based esports coalition Beastcoast. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

“M80 and Beastcoast have a lot of mutual respect for the communities we’ve built – and now we’re ready to take it to the next level,” Marco Mereu, the cofounder and chief executive of M80, said in a statement. “This move will bring M80 into key new esports titles like Dota 2, allow us to reach and support new fans, and continue the breakneck momentum we’ve maintained since launching M80 just a year ago.”

The acquisition merges two rather large players in the esports space. M80 was cofounded by Mereu, a longtime gaming entrepreneur that led Boston-based indie games publisher Gameblyr and mobile game installs marketplace Roostr, also based in Boston. M80 leverages data and new technology – alongside traditional athlete coaching – to train esports athletes.

Beastcoast, an esports game organizer founded in 2017, created its own reputation of building strong teams that compete in esports tournaments. Beastcoast’s Dota 2 team, which competes in the online multiplayer Dota 2 game, scored several regional wins and has qualified four times for an annual esports championship The International.

“It’s been an incredible journey growing Beastcoast from the ground-up,” said Beastcoast Chief Executive Grant Zinn in a statement. “Our success in various esports has always been focused around building community and supporting innovation in the space. I’m excited to bring that same spirit to M80 and help the organization as it begins its journey in several new esports.”

Zinn will join M80 as the chief business development officer. M80 will take on nurturing different Beastcoast ventures, including the successful Dota 2 team (though not all competition teams are involved in the acquisition). Beastcoast’s 3.7 million followers will now be swallowed into M80’s 20-million-and-counting following base.

Sports is part of a larger gaming ecosystem, Peter Levin, cofounder and managing director at Griffin, told the Los Angeles Business Journal in a previous interview. The web of gaming studios and indie developers intertwines with Hollywood’s film and entertainment industry – where the likes of Max and Amazon Prime turned gaming franchises into television series and movies.

“Quite frankly, it’s a huge muscle that we’re able to flex as a fund because we sit at the center of this intersection of gaming and media and sport in a way that really no one else has, in our position,” Levin said. “We couldn’t be more excited about these types of developments.”