History[edit]

Azubu was founded in 2012 when Lars Windhorst noticed that children were using live streaming services to watch others play video games, with the biggest game being League of Legends. Windhorst claimed "it was exotic" to witness people watch others play video games. Over a four-year span, Sapinda Group, the firm that Windhorst owned, invested $40 million USD into Azubu.


In 2014, Azubu announced partnered with fourteen League of Legends streamers including Faker of SKT T1 K and MadLife of CJ Entus Frost.^[1]


Throughout much of 2016, several employees left the company, leaving Sapinda Group to fund Azubu less and less. Windhorst eventually admitted that he had funded Azubu inefficiently and should have provided more sufficient funding. Sapinda Group would "drip-feed" funds to Azubu to accelerate growth.^[2][3]


In April 2016 Azubu revealed that they had been developing a better video player and a revenue network that they released for their website.^[4] The same year, Esportspedia, owned by Azubu, moved to EsportsWikis,^[5] although the old website is still functional.