LEAWOOD, Kan., May 05, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- epay, a business segment of Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ: EEFT), and Ireland-based famehype announced today a new global social commerce collaboration that will better connect consumers, leading brands and influencers in the multi-billion dollar gaming and esports markets.

The collaboration solves two main problems that surface when bringing these groups together:

• It bridges the selling gap between game publishers and the millions of loyal global followers that social media influencers in the gaming and esports markets have accumulated. Through the famehype platform, epay will supply digital content from its portfolio of leading game publishers that influencers can sell to their followers. The process provides game publishers with more control than ever before while they increase their exposure and sales to targeted audiences.
  
  
• The collaboration also streamlines the e-commerce setup process and provides more benefits for influencers than they typically find at other e-commerce providers. The famehype platform hosts each influencer’s e-commerce site and facilitates the sale of epay’s digital gaming content (gift cards, gaming titles, coins or in-game currency, and add-ons) as well as the influencer’s own merchandise. Altogether, the platform provides influencers with a complete product offering that helps them grow their brand, generate revenue from third party products and monetize their own content by giving them ownership of their own online store.
  

The famehype platform was recently launched across 14 European countries (listed below). The large gaming markets in the United States, India and Brazil are to follow with launches in the next few months.

In its role as digital content provider, epay provides influencers partnering with famehype with attractive digital content offers from renowned gaming brands such as Nintendo and PlayStation. These well-known brands are part of the extensive global brand portfolio for which epay distributes digital content in the form of gift cards and prepaid cards in bricks-and-mortar retail and ecommerce channels. With the famehype partnership, epay is opening up innovative digital sales and marketing channels for its existing and future brand partners worldwide.

famehype and epay plan to expand the collaboration to include more brands and countries around the world, attracting as many influencers and fan bases to the platform as possible to take advantage of several trends in the influencer and gaming markets. For example, a survey showed that 87% of shoppers were inspired by an influencer to make a purchase, with 65% of consumers discovering a new brand or product at least once a week through an influencer [1]. The influencer market is set to grow from $9.7 billion in 2020 to $13.8 billion in 2021, a year-over-year growth of 42% [2]. In what was a tough year for many, the gaming industry was able to generate significant growth in 2020 as the world’s 2.6 billion gamers spent $159 billion on games, growing the market 9.3% YoY on its way to an expected $200 billion by the end of 2023 [3].

Kevin Caponecchi, Executive VP and CEO, epay, Software and EFT Asia Pacific Division added: “We are thrilled to be working with famehype on this project. With the retail market moving to converge e-commerce and social media, influencers are becoming increasingly important brand ambassadors. They help connect brands with consumers via social media in highly effective ways to deliver immediate and long-term returns for both themselves and the brand.”

Michael Kelly, Founder & CEO of famehype concluded, “It’s extremely exciting to be at the forefront of the influencer retail evolution with epay by bridging the gap between brands and influencers. Finally, brands have access and oversight to influencer commerce and influencers are giving their audiences access to legitimate digital content.”

Countries in the initial launch include: United Kingdom, Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Luxembourg.

Interested influencers please visit https://www.famehype.gg/   or contact hello@famehype.gg

Interested brands please contact their existing epay contact or marketing@uk.epayworldwide.com

About famehype:
famehype, is an Irish company founded by payment, ecommerce and gaming experts. The company has created an advanced data driven platform allowing Vetted Creators to grow their brand, give them ownership of the “store” and generate long term revenue, and allowing Game Publishers to engage with targeted audiences, control the process and increase revenue. Using our influencer ambassador team, consisting of ex gaming content Creators, we are fast building a network of vetted influencers to assist them in generating lifetime revenue.

About epay:
epay is a world-leading full-service payment provider for payment processing and prepaid solutions that processed 2.4 billion transactions in 2020. The company has built up an extensive network of retailers with 736,000 point-of-sale terminals in 60 countries, to connect renowned brands with consumers all around the world. The company offers a portfolio of gift cards (prepaid, closed loop and digital media), business incentives and payment solutions (card acceptance, terminals, e-commerce, mobile and Internet of Payment) for omnichannel commerce, and offers its services thanks to its proprietary cash register integration software. epay is a segment of Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ: EEFT), a Kansas-based company which earned $2.5 billion in revenue in 2020, employing a staff of over 8,000 employees and serving customers in 175 countries.

About Euronet Worldwide, Inc.
Euronet Worldwide is an industry leader in processing secure electronic financial transactions. The Company offers payment and transaction processing solutions to financial institutions, retailers, service providers and individual consumers. These services include comprehensive ATM, POS and card outsourcing services, card issuing and merchant acquiring services, software solutions, cash-based and online-initiated consumer-to-consumer and business-to-business money transfer services, and electronic distribution of digital media and prepaid mobile phone time.

Euronet's global payment network is extensive – including 36,777 ATMs, approximately 349,000 EFT POS terminals and a growing portfolio of outsourced debit and credit card services which are under management in 61 countries; card software solutions; a prepaid processing network of approximately 736,000 POS terminals at approximately 345,000 retailer locations in 60 countries; and a global money transfer network of approximately 475,000 locations serving 159 countries. With corporate headquarters in Leawood, Kansas, USA, and 66 worldwide offices, Euronet serves clients in approximately 175 countries. For more information, please visit the Company's website at www.euronetworldwide.com.

Sources:

[1] https://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Rakuten-2019-Influencer-Marketing-Report-Rakuten-Marketing.pdf

[2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1092819/global-influencer-market-size/

[3] https://newzoo.com/insights/trend-reports/newzoo-global-esports-market-report-2020-light-version/

Press Contact:
Stephanie Taylor
Director of Financial Planning and Investor Relations Euronet Worldwide, Inc.
+1-913-327-4200
staylor@euronetworldwide.com

Source: Euronet Worldwide, Inc.