SharedPlay rebrands to BeyondPlay following trademark sell-off

Social streaming start-up SharedPlay has rebranded to BeyondPlay after founder Karolina Pelc cashed in on the firm’s original trademark. The original brand name was sold to an unnamed buyer four months ago for a significant but undisclosed amount, which has since allowed the business to assemble a heavy-hitting executive team and invest in areas outside of igaming. For example, Playtech’s Cristina Turbatu joined in September as CTO following the arrival of former Casumo director of gaming Jacqui Gatt as chief operating officer. Online social streaming has been big business for a while now and this trend was accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic when people were unable to interact face-to-face during lockdowns. Tech leaders including Netflix and Disney+ both launched watch-along functionality allowing friends and family to communicate while watching the same online content despite being based in different locations. Apple launched its own ‘SharePlay’ product as part of its FaceTime update in iOS 15, shortly after former LeoVegas casino director Pelc had sold the rights to her original domain. Now known as BeyondPlay, the start-up is looking to launch a demo product in time for ICE 2022.

Commenting on the rebrand, Pelc told EGR the decision had to be made with a pragmatic mindset. “The first name was such a no-brainer because it was engraved very deeply in my heart that I felt that the second name needed to be similar,” said Pelc. “I didn’t want to do stakeholder workshops and voting and have a million people involved, it still needed to come from the heart and make sense. “We’re also keeping the same logo because we feel that it’s the perfect representation of what we do.” Pelc said that BeyondPlay felt even more suitable than the original brand name because the injection of funds has enabled the firm to explore opportunities beyond pooled betting and igaming. She said: “We’re looking at more avenues now and we’re looking for different products in our portfolio because with this team we’ve hired we can have much bigger dreams. “While it was sentimental saying goodbye to SharedPlay, we’re super excited that the new name is even more suitable for us now,” she added. After founding the business with €1.1m in financial backing from LeoVegas in return for a 25% stake, Pelc pledged to document the unpredictable journey of building a start-up from the ground up. The business made a name for itself as SharedPlay after creating a buzz in some leading technology publications, and Pelc has partnered up with ENV Media to ensure the firm keeps its SEO value. SharedPlay has produced a short video explaining the rebrand to BeyondPlay, which can be viewed here.