Former San Jose Sharks co-owner Stratton Sclavos has invested in multi-esports organisation Echo Fox. Financial terms of the technology executive's investment were not disclosed.
Beyond financial means, Sclavos's involvement in Echo Fox, which was founded by retired three-time NBA champion Rick Fox, is unclear. Following his investment, the team added a large portfolio of some of the best fighting game players in the world in Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Super Smash Bros. for what sources tell ESPN are "unprecedented salaries" in comparison to many of their peers.
Sclavos first sought to invest into Echo Fox after being friends and acquaintances with Fox and Echo Fox investor Amit Raizada and CEO Jace Hall. That investment was complete four to five months ago, he says. Sclavos is also currently the lead investor in TipTalk, a company which has now partnered with Echo Fox as a result of the investment, he says.
"I live full-time in Los Angeles and am very good friends with Amit Raizada and Rick Fox. Rick is one of the owners and Amit is another investor there," Sclavos told ESPN. "In talking about various business opportunities that I was looking to pursue in either venture capital or private equity, we happened one night to be talking about Echo Fox and what was going on in competitive video gaming
"I knew Jace Hall from way back when and Amit's obviously been a very successful businessman himself. I thought, 'why not put my lot in with these guys and try to make something in this new market, which has a lot of similarities to what I did in tech and what a lot of similarities to what I did in pro hockey?'"
Sclavos is previously the chairman of the board, president and CEO of Internet network infrastructure company VeriSign, which is where he saw his most success before he resigned in 2007. Sclavos also served as a board member of business and financial software company Intuit, the developer of popular programs TurboTax and Mint, as well as networking company Juniper Networks and cloud computing corporation Salesforce.com. He resigned from these positions upon his move to Los Angeles.
Sclavos was a minority owner of the Northern Californian NHL team the San Jose Sharks until selling his remaining equity to majority owner Hasso Platner in 2013.
Echo Fox was first founded in Dec. 2015, when Fox and Jones together purchased the League of Legends Championship Series spot from Gravity Gaming for a reported $1 million. Fox has lead the charge as the public facing figure of the organization.