Sleeper is a fantasy sports and esports league and chat app.

Sleeper raises $20 million to expand into fantasy esports

Sleeper has raised $20 million to expand from its base in fantasy sports to the adjacent market of fantasy esports and video game chat. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, and other investors include Twitch cofounder Kevin Lin, retired NBA player Baron Davis, and NFL wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster. NBA All-Star Kevin Durant participated in an earlier round.

Sleeper CEO Nan Wang said the company is launching a fantasy esports chat service around the League of Legends Championship Series, the annual esports tournament for Riot Games’ popular title. The LCS is now the third-most-popular major professional sports league in the U.S. for 18-year-olds to 34-year-olds.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.