UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, DC 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022

or

☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from ___________ to ___________

Commission file number: 001-39868

Motorsport Games Inc.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (305) 507-8799

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.☐

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to § 240.10D-1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant, based upon the closing price of the registrant’s Class A common stock as reported on The Nasdaq Capital Market on June 30, 2022, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was approximately $7,687,057.

As of March 24, 2023, the registrant had 2,827,433 shares of Class A common stock, with 1 vote per share, and 700,000 shares of Class B common stock, with 10 votes per share, issued and outstanding. At such date, Motorsport Network, LLC (“Motorsport Network”) owned (i) 1,480,384 shares of Motorsport Games Inc. (the “Company” or “Motorsport Games”) issued and outstanding Class A common stock and (ii) all 700,000 shares of the Company’s issued and outstanding Class B common stock. All Class A common stock and Class B common stock share data and share-based calculations set forth in this Annual Report on Form 10-K have been adjusted to reflect the registrant’s 1-for-10 reverse stock split completed on November 10, 2022 on a retroactive basis for the periods presented.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement relating to its 2023 annual meeting of stockholders are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K where indicated. Such proxy statement will be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of the fiscal year to which this report relates.

Motorsport Games Inc.

Form 10-K

For the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2022

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Report”) of Motorsport Games Inc. (the “Company,” “Motorsport Games,” “we,” “us” or “our”) contains certain statements, which are not historical facts and are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements give our current expectations and projections relating to our financial condition, results of operations, plans, objectives, strategies, future performance and business. You can identify forward-looking statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. We use words, such as “could,” “would,” “may,” “might,” “will,” “expect,” “likely,” “believe,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “project” and other similar expressions to identify some forward-looking statements, but not all forward-looking statements include these words. For example, forward-looking statements include, but not limited to, statements we make relating to:

The forward-looking statements contained in this Report are based on assumptions that we have made in light of our industry experience and our perceptions of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors that we believe are appropriate under the circumstances. As you read and consider this Report, you should understand that these statements are not guarantees of performance or results. They involve risks, uncertainties (many of which are beyond our control) and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Although we believe that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, you should be aware that many factors could affect our actual operating and financial performance and cause our performance to differ materially from the performance anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements are discussed in “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of this Report, as updated in our subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). In addition to factors that may be described in our filings with the SEC, including this Report, the following factors, among others, could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by us:

Additionally, there are other risks and uncertainties described from time to time in the reports that we file with the SEC. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or should any of these assumptions prove to be incorrect, our actual operating and financial performance may vary in material respects from the performance projected in these forward-looking statements. Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement contained in this Report to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which it is made or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events or circumstances, except as otherwise required by law. New factors that could cause our business not to develop as we expect emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. Further, we cannot assess the impact of each currently known or new factor on our results of operations or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements.

RISK FACTORS SUMMARY

We are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, including risks related to our financial condition and liquidity; risks related to our business and industry; risks related to our relationship with Motorsport Network, LLC (“Motorsport Network”), which controls more than a majority of our issued and outstanding voting shares; risks related to our Company; risks related to the ownership of our Class A common stock; and certain general risks, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity, results of operations and cash flows. These risks include, but are not limited to, the following principal risks:

For a more complete discussion of the material risk factors applicable to us, see “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of this Report.

PART I

Item 1. Business

Company Overview

Motorsport Games is a leading racing game developer, publisher and esports ecosystem provider of official motorsport racing series throughout the world, including NASCAR, the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race (“Le Mans”) and the associated FIA World Endurance Championship (the “WEC”), INDYCAR, the British Touring Car Championship (the “BTCC”) and others. Our portfolio is comprised of some of the most prestigious motorsport leagues and events in the world. Further, in 2021 we acquired the KartKraft karting simulation game as well as Studio 397 B.V. (“Studio397”) and their rFactor 2 realistic racing simulator technology and platform, adding both games and their underlying technology to our portfolio.

Motorsport Games’ purpose is to make the thrill of motorsports accessible to everyone by creating the highest quality, most sophisticated and innovative experiences for racers, gamers and fans of all ages. Our products and services target a large global motorsport audience. The latest figures reported from 2021 show NASCAR, INDYCAR and Le Mans, which includes the WEC, having an estimated combined global fanbase of over 1 billion, while the global fanbase for Formula 1 was estimated to be 757 million. Motorsport Games scales its business by releasing more games on more platforms under unique licenses, while continuing to evolve scalable technology platforms to “wow” users.

Started in 2018 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Motorsport Network, we are currently the official developer and publisher of the NASCAR video game racing franchise and have obtained the official licenses to develop multi-platform games for the BTCC, the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and the WEC, as well as INDYCAR. We develop and publish multi-platform racing video games for consoles (such as Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch), personal computers (PCs) and mobile platforms (such as iOS and Android) through various retail and digital channels, including full-game and downloadable content. For fiscal years 2022 and 2021, a majority of our revenue was generated from sales of our NASCAR racing video games.

According to data from NewZoo, an industry source for games market insight and analytics, total global mobile gaming revenues were estimated to be 92.2 billion for 2022. We presently offer NASCAR Heat Mobile for iOS and Android and continue to evaluate further opportunities to add to our mobile gaming portfolio to capture this large audience.

We are striving to become a leader in organizing and facilitating esports tournaments, competitions, and events for our licensed racing games. 2022 was another successful year in esports, which began with the grand finale of the second running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual in January, the INDYCAR-Motorsport Games Pro Challenge in February and the continuation and re-brand of elite single seater esports rFactor 2 Formula Pro. The year concluded with the first 4 rounds of the 2022-23 Le Mans Virtual Series in September, October, November and December. In addition, we also organized competitions to drive user engagement on our rFactor 2 platform, as well as successfully delivering onsite esports activations with rFactor 2 at selected BTCC events in Autumn. For 2022, our esports events had a cumulative total of approximately 2.3 million video views with approximately 6.3 million minutes watched. Subsequently, in the first quarter of 2023, we announced our viewership figures for the 2022-23 Le Mans Virtual Series, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual, which had a global audience of 8.5 million across television (TV)/over-the-top (OTT) channels, 36 million social media impressions and over 10 million video views across the full 5-race season. We continue to leverage esports competitions to bring wider awareness to our gaming products, while creating events that are adventures for viewers.

We believe that connecting virtual racing gamers, motorsport and esports fans on a digital entertainment and social platform represents the greatest opportunity to enhance the way that people learn, watch, play, and experience racing video games and racing esports. To that end, we have developed Traxion, a collective of racing, esports and gaming enthusiasts building a positive community of likeminded gamers, sim racers. After launching in 2021, Traxion continues to grow across social, video and editorial channels, while feeding the community the latest news, reviews, updates, opinions, and insight from the most recognized and respected names from the world of racing games. In 2022, Traxion published over 2,000 articles and attracted nearly 10 million pageviews.

Company Background

Motorsport Games was formed in 2018 by Motorsport Network as a wholly-owned subsidiary in connection with the acquisition by Motorsport Games of a controlling interest in 704Games Company (“704Games”), which holds the exclusive license to be the official video game developer and publisher for the NASCAR video game racing franchise, subject to certain limited exceptions. Simultaneously with the acquisition of 704Games in 2018, we extended the NASCAR license for 10 years until December 31, 2029. In addition, we have the exclusive right to create and organize esports leagues and events for NASCAR using our NASCAR racing video games, subject to certain limited exceptions.

We entered into an agreement to facilitate the Le Mans Esports Series as part of a joint venture with Automobile Club de l’Ouest (“ACO”), the organizer of the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race in 2019. Through our ownership interest in this joint venture, which was increased to 51% from 45% in January 2021, we secured the rights to be the exclusive video game developer and publisher for the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and the WEC, which the 24 Hours of Le Mans race is a part of, for a ten-year period. In addition, through this joint venture with ACO, we have the right to create and organize esports leagues and events for the Le Mans Esports Series.

In May 2020, we secured a multi-year licensing agreement to exclusively develop and publish the video games for the BTCC racing series across console, mobile and casual gaming channels. In addition, through this license, we have the right to create and organize esports leagues and events for the BTCC racing series. The agreement expires on December 31, 2026.

In January 2021, we completed our initial public offering (“IPO”). Prior to our IPO, Motorsport Games was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Motorsport Network and, following the completion of our IPO, Motorsport Network continues to be our majority stockholder.

In March 2021, we acquired all assets comprising the KartKraft computer video game from Black Delta Holdings PTY, Black Delta Trading Pty Ltd and Black Delta IP Pty Ltd (collectively, “Black Delta”). Through this acquisition, we entered the simulated kart-racing space and formed Motorsport Games Australia Pty Ltd. to support the Black Delta development team, which joined Motorsport Games Australia following the acquisition.

In April 2021, we acquired the remaining equity interests in 704Games Company whereby 704Games Company merged with 704Games LLC, a newly-formed Delaware limited liability company and our wholly-owned subsidiary, with 704Games LLC being the surviving entity in such merger.

In April 2021, we also acquired Studio397, the company behind the industry leading rFactor 2 racing simulation platform, from Luminis International BV. Following this acquisition, Studio397 continues its work on the rFactor 2 platform while also developing the physics and handling models for our other official games. We continue to utilize our resources and expertise to enhance the rFactor 2 platform, especially in areas highlighted by the racing community.

In July 2021, we entered into certain license agreements with INDYCAR LLC to use certain licensed intellectual property for motorsports and/or racing video gaming products and esports events related to, themed as, or containing the INDYCAR SERIES. The license agreements are long-term agreements, in connection with which the parties intend to create a relationship for the development of video games and events to be the official video games and esports events of the INDYCAR SERIES.

Our Products

Game Products Portfolio

We develop and publish multi-platform racing video games including for game consoles, PCs and mobile platforms through various retail and digital channels, including full-game and downloadable content. Our current video game product portfolio is comprised of officially licensed NASCAR games. We have obtained licenses to develop multi-platform games for INDYCAR, the BTCC, the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, and the WEC. Since our formation in 2018, we have published NASCAR Heat 3, NASCAR Heat 4, NASCAR Heat 5, NASCAR 21: Ignition, NASCAR Heat Ultimate Edition+ and NASCAR Rivals for various platforms, including Xbox, PlayStation, PC, and Nintendo Switch. Our current mobile offering for NASCAR is NASCAR Heat Mobile for iOS and Android. In 2021, we added the KartKraft karting simulation game and the rFactor 2 realistic racing simulation game to our portfolio, and completed KartKraft’s full release on the Steam platform in January 2022.

Our current video game catalog includes the following titles:

Game		Image		Overview		Platforms		Release Date
rFactor 2				rFactor 2 is a realistic racing simulation game. It features mixed class road racing with realistic dynamics, an immersive sound environment, and stunning graphics, that are perfect for top-level esports and a rich single-player experience.		Microsoft Windows via Steam		March 28, 2013
NASCAR Heat Mobile				NASCAR Heat Mobile is the only officially licensed, authentic NASCAR racing experience for mobile devices.		iOS and Android		April 25, 2017
NASCAR Heat 3				NASCAR Heat 3 is a racing video game simulating the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series and feeder competitions.		Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Microsoft Windows via Steam		September 7, 2018
NASCAR Heat 4				NASCAR Heat 4 is a racing video game simulating the 2019 NASCAR season. To date, NASCAR Heat 4 is the most successful sequel of the NASCAR Heat franchise based on quantity of units sold.		Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Microsoft Windows via Steam		September 13, 2019

NASCAR Heat 5				NASCAR Heat 5 is a racing video game simulating the 2020 NASCAR season.		Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Microsoft Windows via Steam		July 7 and 10, 2020
NASCAR 21: Ignition				NASCAR 21: Ignition is a racing video game simulating the 2021 NASCAR season. This is a first installment of the new series, which changes the game engine, physics, artificial intelligence, and many other game fundamental components. A 2022 season update was provided as DLC in October 2022, free of charge.		Xbox, PlayStation, and Microsoft Windows via Steam		October 28, 2021
NASCAR Heat Ultimate Edition+				NASCAR Heat Ultimate Edition+ is a racing video game simulating the 2020 NASCAR season.		Nintendo Switch		November 19, 2021
KartKraft				KartKraft is a kart racing simulator, which was released in January 2022.		Microsoft Windows via Steam		January 26, 2022 (full release)
NASCAR Rivals				NASCAR Rivals is a racing video game simulating the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season		Nintendo Switch		October 14, 2022

Esports Partnerships and Franchises

We recognize the growing importance and business viability of esports, especially within the racing and motorsport genres. In recognition of this importance, we manage and operate the esports platforms for numerous racing series and organizations. 2022 was another successful year in esports which began with the second running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual in January, the continuation and re-brand of elite single seater esports rFactor 2 Formula Pro as well as the INDYCAR-Motorsport Games Pro Challenge. In addition, we also organized competitions to drive user engagement on our rFactor 2 platform, as well as successfully delivering onsite esports activations with rFactor 2 at selected BTCC events in Autumn. In 2021, we organized several esports competitions, including the DiRT Rally 2.0 World Series on the popular Codemasters game, the Winter Heat and Summer Showdown on NASCAR Heat 5, and the expansion of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual event into a part of a longer annual series towards the end of the year with professional teams and real-world racing drivers. In addition, we also organized competitions to drive user engagement on our rFactor 2 platform.

Our Audience and Our Community

Our majority stockholder, Motorsport Network, is a leading global motorsport and automotive digital media platform. Founded in 2015, Motorsport Network offers hundreds of millions of fans and enthusiasts around the globe an interactive experience to engage with motorsports and cars by leveraging its technology, customer intelligence and brands. Motorsport Network’s global team creates engaging, around-the-clock content and experiences for passionate fans of motorsports and the automotive industry world-wide.

Pursuant to a promotion agreement we entered into with Motorsport Network in August 2018, Motorsport Network provides us with exclusive promotion services consisting of the use of its and its affiliates’ various media platforms to promote our business, organizations, products and services in racing video games and related esports activities. Our relationship with Motorsport Network provides us access to its highly engaged, brand-loyal and affluent audience, including in the form of editorial coverage, ad stack and special organic integrations that puts us in front of this targeted audience. We believe this allows us to cultivate a passionate fanbase to engage in our offered products and services that is similar to the target audience for our racing game products, and racing esports events and platform. We also believe this audience has a passion for everything motorsport and auto-related. This promotion agreement will remain in effect until such date that Motorsport Network no longer holds at least 20% of the voting interest in Motorsport Games, at which point we anticipate being able to extend or re-negotiate the promotion agreement on reasonable terms.

We have also continued to invest in and expand our audience base through traditional marketing and sales distribution channels including Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, YouTube and other online social networks, as well as our own platform – Traxion – which is a source of information and news for all things relating to virtual racing and esports.

Revenues

We currently generate revenue primarily by selling our racing video game products for video game consoles, PC, and mobile platforms through various retail and digital channels, including full-game and downloadable content. In addition, we began providing product development services to third-parties for the first time in 2022 that included the ongoing support and maintenance of developed software.

Our esports business generates revenues from sponsorships, advertising and media rights for events and competitions. In addition, should audience patterns continue to grow, we believe the esports business has the potential to generate incremental revenues through the further sale of media rights to the Company’s esports events and competitions, as well as merchandising and sports betting.

Marketing, Sales, and Distribution

Many of our products contain software that enables us to connect with our gamers directly, including through customized advertising and in-game messaging based on customer preferences and trends. This provides a significant marketing tool that allows us to communicate and market directly to our customers.

Other direct marketing efforts include activities on Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, YouTube and other online social networks, online advertising, public relations activity, print and broadcast advertising, coordinated in-store and industry promotions (including merchandising and point of purchase displays), participation in cooperative advertising programs, direct response vehicles, and product sampling through demonstration software distributed through the Internet or the digital online services provided by our partners. Our relationship with Motorsport Network also provides us access to their highly engaged, brand-loyal and affluent audience, including in the form of editorial coverage, ad stack and special organic integrations that puts us in front of this targeted audience.

From time to time, we also receive marketing support from hardware manufacturers, producers of consumer products related to a game, and retailers in connection with their own promotional efforts, as well as co-marketing from promotional partners. For example, through our partnership with NASCAR, we benefit from having access to their extensive fanbase and social and digital media audience to market our products through email marketing campaigns, coordinated social media advertising and collaborated press releases, further expanding NASCAR and racing enthusiasts’ awareness of our products. This is similar with our other partnerships with INDYCAR, Le Mans, WEC, BTCC, Formula E and others.

Additionally, 704Games is a 50/50 joint venture partner with an affiliate of Race Team Alliance (“RTA”) to develop the eNHPL. RTA is an organization consisting of 16 NASCAR Cup Series teams and supports the promotion of eNASCAR Heat Pro League (“eNHPL”) events through their individual team social and digital platforms, among other things, including by cross-posting Facebook livestreams of race broadcasts, adding eNHPL specific pages on team/sponsor websites, displaying tune-in graphics and digital promotions, generating creative content with specific eNHPL drivers, supporting NASCAR Heat social and digital content, and integrating with existing partners and more. Most notable, the RTA teams include the eNHPL and NASCARHeat.com logos on the contingency space on each of their NASCAR Cup Series vehicles for a number of NASCAR events. The contingency space is located behind the front tire and in front of the car number, placing the logos in prime sponsorship space on the race car. These logos are clearly visible on the cars during televised race action and are also clearly seen in Victory Lane photos, leading to increased awareness about the eNHPL and the NASCAR Heat franchise through this unique promotional channel.

We also are able to sell directly to consumers through various digital platforms. Our products and content are available for consumers to purchase and download at their convenience directly to their video game console, PC, or mobile device through our platform partners, including Microsoft Corporation (“Microsoft”), Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (“Sony”), Apple Inc. (“Apple”), Nintendo Co., Ltd. (“Nintendo”), Google and Steam.

Our physical gaming products are sold through a distribution network with an exclusive partner who specializes in the distribution of games through mass-market retailers (e.g., Target, Wal-Mart), consumer electronics stores (e.g., Best Buy), discount warehouses, game specialty stores (e.g., GameStop) and other online retail stores (e.g., Amazon). We expect to continue to derive significant revenues from sales of our physical gaming products to a very limited number of distribution partners. For the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, we sold substantially all of our physical disk products for the retail channel through a single distribution partner, which represented approximately 9% and 28% of our total revenue for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively.

Customer Concentration

For the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, three customers accounted for approximately 61% and four customer accounted for 83% of our consolidated revenues, respectively. No other customer accounted for 10% or more of our revenues in those periods. For the year ended December 31, 2022, four customers accounted for approximately 90% of our accounts receivable, and for the year ended December 31, 2021, two customers accounted for approximately 70% of our accounts receivable. No other customer accounted for 10% or more of our accounts receivable in those periods. A reduction in sales from or loss of these customers would have a material adverse effect on the Company’s results of operations and financial condition.

Digital Marketing Strategy

As part of our plan to maximize our revenues and product offerings, we utilize an audience-centric approach, by collecting audience data across all of our products, platforms, campaigns, attribution models, and analytics tools. These metrics are then turned into actionable insights for use in the development of our games and esports offerings.

We monitor audience data to improve our understanding of three key areas—consumer behavioral changes, brand perception, and location in the sales funnel—which in turn allows us to build relationships with our customers and brand partners.

We use this audience intelligence to personalize messaging, product positioning, and creatives based on user signals and their position in the sales funnel. We believe this strategy is designed to minimize ad spend waste, increase customer conversion and thereby increase our return on investment.

Strategic Licenses and Partnerships

NASCAR

We are currently party to a series of license agreements with NASCAR for worldwide rights to use the NASCAR brand. Through our acquisition of 704Games in 2018, we obtained the exclusive right, subject to certain limited exceptions, to use certain licensed rights (including the rights of certain NASCAR teams) to develop, promote, advertise, distribute, manufacture and package simulation-style video gaming products, which are NASCAR-branded video game products. These games have a stock car and/or truck racing theme relating to NASCAR-sanctioned events intended to replicate authentic NASCAR racing competition rules and structure. The limited exceptions to this exclusive right represent third-party NASCAR- branded casual games, which may incorporate some mix of core characteristics of simulation-style video gaming products provided they are utilized with additional distinguishing creative liberties which are not consistent with authentic NASCAR racing. We also have a non-exclusive right to use certain licensed rights (including the rights of certain NASCAR teams) to develop, promote, advertise, distribute, manufacture and package other NASCAR-branded driving or non-driving gaming products.

In addition, we have the exclusive right to use NASCAR-branded simulation-style video gaming products as the platform for conducting and administering esports leagues and events for NASCAR. Such exclusivity excludes esports events relating to iRacing, which is a NASCAR-sanctioned motorsport racing simulation currently available for the PC platform and designed to imitate exact NASCAR racing physics and conditions (including for certain NASCAR racing series), and certain competitive gaming events that fall outside of the exclusivity granted to us.

Our current license arrangement with NASCAR expires on December 31, 2029. The license arrangement provides for a commitment by both parties to participate in exclusive negotiations to renew the license, beginning March 1, 2028, with negotiations lasting for at least 90 days. The license arrangement also requires us to pay royalties, including certain minimum annual guarantees, on an ongoing basis to NASCAR and to meet certain product distribution, development, marketing and related milestones.

24 Hours of Le Mans

On March 15, 2019, we formed Le Mans Esports Series Limited as a joint venture between Motorsport Games and ACO with the primary purpose of carrying on the promotion of and running of an esports event business replicating races of the WEC and the 24 Hours of Le Mans race on an electronic gaming platform. Through our ownership interest in this joint venture, which was increased to 51% from 45% in January 2021, we secured the rights to be the exclusive video game developer and publisher for the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and the WEC through a separate license agreement. This license expires 10 years beginning from the date of our first release of a WEC or Le Mans race video gaming product with the term automatically renewing for an additional ten-year term unless ACO provides written notice of its intent not to renew. In exchange for such license, we agreed to fund up to €8,000,000 (approximately $8,530,000 USD as of December 31, 2022) as needed for development of the video game products, to be contributed on an as-needed basis during the term of the license. Additionally, we are obligated to pay ACO an annual payment beginning from the time of the launch of the first video game product and continuing on each anniversary thereof for the term of the license. In addition, through this joint venture, we have the right to create and organize esports leagues and events for the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, the WEC and the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual event through certain additional license agreements. These additional license agreements, which were granted on a royalty-free basis, each expire January 25, 2031 with the term automatically renewing for an additional ten-year term unless ACO provides written notice of its intent not to renew. This joint venture shall continue until the earlier of the date on which the parties cease to be beneficially entitled in the aggregate to 25% or more of the equity share capital of the joint venture, the parties otherwise cease to control the affairs of the joint venture or the date of the commencement of the winding-up of the joint venture. If certain events of defaults occur, the non-defaulting party has a call option pursuant to which it can force the defaulting party to sell all (but not part) of its ownership in the joint venture in accordance with the joint venture agreement.

BTCC

On May 29, 2020, we entered into a license agreement with BARC (TOCA) Limited (“BARC”), the exclusive promoter of the BTCC. Pursuant to the agreement, we were granted an exclusive license to use certain licensed intellectual property for motorsports and/or racing video gaming products related to, themed as, or containing the BTCC, on consoles and mobile applications, esports series and esports events (including our esports platform). In exchange for the license, the agreement required us to pay BARC an initial fee in two equal installments of $100,000 each, both of which were made prior to their respective due dates. Following the initial fee, the agreement also requires us to pay royalties, including certain minimum annual guarantees, on an ongoing basis to BARC and to meet certain product distribution, marketing and related milestones, subject to termination penalties. The agreement shall remain in effect through December 31, 2026. However, if BARC’s agreement with the Royal Automobile Club Motor Sport Association Limited to promote the BTCC is extended, BARC shall notify us and discussions for an extension of the license agreement shall take place no later than March 31, 2026. Except in the event of termination for breach, a sell off period will begin and continue until the earlier of 180 days from such termination or December 31, 2026.

INDYCAR

On July 13, 2021, we entered into a royalty-bearing license agreement (the “INDYCAR Gaming License”) with INDYCAR LLC. Pursuant to the INDYCAR Gaming License, INDYCAR LLC licensed us to use certain licensed intellectual property (described in the INDYCAR Gaming License) for motorsports and/or racing video gaming products related to, themed as, or containing the INDYCAR SERIES. The INDYCAR Gaming License is a long-term agreement, in connection with which the parties intend to form an exclusive relationship for the development of video games to be the official video games of the INDYCAR SERIES.

In exchange for the INDYCAR Gaming License, we will pay to INDYCAR an annual development fee during calendar years 2021 and 2022, after which we will pay INDYCAR a royalty fee equal to a certain percentage of sales of physical and digital video gaming products, subject to certain annual minimum royalty guarantees. We have agreed under the INDYCAR Gaming License to provide advertising and publicity to bring the INDYCAR SERIES racing video gaming products to the attention of as many purchasers and potential purchasers as possible.

Additionally, we and INDYCAR entered into a royalty-bearing license agreement with INDYCAR which licensed us to use certain INDYCAR intellectual property (“Licensed IP”) for motorsports and/or racing esports events related to, themed as, or containing the INDYCAR SERIES (including the rFactor 2 platform) (the “INDYCAR Esports License”). The INDYCAR Esports License is a long-term agreement, in connection with which the parties intend to form an exclusive relationship for the development of events to be the official esports events of the INDYCAR SERIES, which include the esports events related to and/or themed as or containing the Licensed IP and related features which, prior to launch, are hosted on our rFactor 2 platform and, after launch of the products, are hosted using the products.

RTA

On February 18, 2019, we formed the Racing Pro League, LLC a 50/50 partnership between our subsidiary 704Games and an affiliate of RTA, with the primary purpose to create, own and operate the eNHPL, a stock car and/or stock truck racing themed esports multiplayer competition video gaming league based on the NASCAR Heat video game series. As part of this partnership, 704Games manages day-to-day operations of the eNHPL and RTA provides certain intellectual property rights from RTA teams and supports the promotion of eNHPL events through their individual team social and digital platforms, team/sponsor websites, digital promotions, content with specific eNHPL drivers, integration with existing partners and more. This partnership shall continue until dissolved by the approval of the board of Racing Pro League, LLC and each of 704Games and RTA, as members, or as required by law.

Epic Games

On August 11, 2020, through our wholly owned subsidiary, MS Gaming Development LLC, we entered into a licensing agreement with Epic Games International (“Epic”) for worldwide licensing rights to Epic’s proprietary computer program known as the Unreal Engine 4. This Agreement was assigned from MS Gaming Development LLC to Motorsport Games Inc. on September 3, 2021.

Pursuant to the agreement, we were granted a nonexclusive, non-transferable and terminable license to develop, market and sublicense (under limited circumstances and subject to conditions of the agreement) certain products using the Unreal Engine 4 for our next generation of games. In exchange for the license, the agreement requires us to pay Epic an initial license fee, royalties, support fees and supplemental license fees for additional platforms.  During a two-year support period, Epic will use commercially reasonable efforts to provide us with updates to the Unreal Engine 4 and technical support via a licensee forum. After the expiration of the support period, Epic has no further obligation to provide or to offer to provide any support services. The agreement is effective until terminated under the provisions of the agreement; however, pursuant to the terms of the agreement, we can only actively develop new or existing authorized products during a five-year active development period, which terminates on August 11, 2025.

Arrangements with Console Manufacturers

Under the terms of agreements entered into separately with Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and their affiliates, we are authorized to develop and distribute disc-based and digitally-delivered software products and services compatible with PlayStation, Xbox and Switch consoles, respectively. Under these agreements with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, we have the non-exclusive right to use, for the specified term and in a designated territory, technology that is owned or licensed by them to publish our games on their respective consoles. With respect to our digitally delivered products and services, the console manufacturers pay us either a wholesale price or a royalty percentage on the revenue they derive from their sales of our products and services. Our transactions for packaged goods products are made pursuant to individual purchase orders, which are accepted on a case-by case basis by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo (or their designated replicators), as the case may be. For packaged goods products, we pay the console manufacturers a per-unit royalty for each unit manufactured. Many key commercial terms of our relationships with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, such as manufacturing terms, delivery times, policies and approval conditions, are determined unilaterally, and are subject to change by the console manufacturers.

The license agreements also require us to indemnify the console manufacturers for any loss, liability and expense resulting from any claim against the console manufacturer regarding our games and services, including any claims for patent, copyright or trademark infringement brought against the console manufacturer. Each license may be terminated by the console manufacturer or shall terminate if a breach or default by us is not cured after we receive written notice from the console manufacturer, or if we become insolvent. The console manufacturers are not obligated to enter into license agreements with us for any future consoles, products or services.

Product Development and Support

We develop and produce our titles using a model in which a group of creative, technical, and production professionals, including among others, designers, producers, programmers, artists, and sound engineers, in coordination with our marketing, finance, analytics, sales, and other professionals, has responsibility for the entire development and production process, including the supervision and coordination of, where appropriate, external resources. We believe this model allows us to deploy the best resources for a given task, by supplementing our internal expertise with top-quality external resources on an as-needed basis.

In addition to our experienced development team, we also rely, in part, on third-party software developers for the partial development of our titles. From time to time, we also acquire the license rights to publish and/or distribute software products. Additionally, in April 2021, we acquired Studio397, the company behind the industry leading rFactor 2 racing simulation platform, as discussed above. Following this acquisition, Studio397 continues its work on the rFactor 2 platform while also developing the physics and handling models for our other project games.

We also provide various forms of product support. Central technology and development teams review, assess, and provide support to products throughout the development process. Quality assurance personnel are also involved throughout the development and production of published content. We subject all such content to extensive testing before public release to ensure compatibility with appropriate hardware systems and configurations and to minimize the number of bugs and other defects found in the products. To support our content, we generally provide rapid game support to players through various means, primarily online through our social media channels.

Competition

The interactive entertainment industry is intensely competitive and new interactive entertainment software products and platforms are regularly introduced. We believe that the main competitive factors in the interactive entertainment industry include: product features, game quality, and playability; brand name recognition; compatibility of products with popular platforms; access to distribution channels; online capability and functionality; ease of use; price; marketing support; and quality of customer service.

We compete with other publishers of virtual racing video games for console, PC, and mobile entertainment, including Codemasters and other major video game publishers and esports companies, such as Electronic Arts. In addition to third-party software competitors, integrated video game console hardware and software companies, such as Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, compete directly with us in the development of game titles for their respective platforms, including titles in the motorsport racing genre, even though they generally cannot create branded NASCAR, Le Mans, INDYCAR or BTCC games for which we hold licenses. A number of software publishers have developed and commercialized, or are currently developing, online games for use by consumers, and we must compete with them for our audience base.

In a broad sense, we compete for the leisure time and discretionary spending of consumers with other interactive entertainment companies, as well as with providers of different forms of entertainment, such as film, television, social networking, music and other consumer products.

Seasonality in Our Business

Historically, we have seen a high degree of seasonality in our business and financial results due to the introduction of seasonal video game updates. We generally aim to synchronize these yearly video game updates with the start of the new racing season and race calendars. Overall, our sales volumes are strongest around the time we launch our new products and also tend to be stronger at the start of the NASCAR racing season. We expect similar patterns for new racing series we are or may be in the process of developing and publishing in the future. We have also historically experienced a higher demand for our games during our fourth calendar quarter due to seasonal holiday demand.

Employees

Our business relies on our ability to attract and retain the right team to enable us to be a leading game developer, publisher and esports ecosystem provider of official motorsport racing series throughout the world. We invest heavily in hiring and retaining talented people, particularly as we grow our business. Our headcount as of December 31, 2022 was 134, of which 133 were full-time employees, including 91 developers, located primarily in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and the Republic of Georgia. None of our employees were covered by collective bargaining agreements, and we believe that relations with our employees are generally good.

Government Regulation

We are subject to various federal, state and international laws and regulations that affect companies conducting business on the Internet and mobile platforms, including those relating to privacy, use and protection of player and employee personal information and data (including the collection of data from minors), the Internet, behavioral tracking, mobile applications, content, advertising and marketing activities (including sweepstakes, contests and giveaways), and anti-corruption. Many of these laws and regulations are continuously evolving and developing, and the application to, and ultimate impact on, us is uncertain. Additional laws in all of these areas are likely to be passed in the future, which could result in significant limitations on or changes to the ways in which we can collect, use, host, store or transmit the personal information and data of our customers or employees, communicate with our players, and deliver products and services, and may significantly increase our compliance costs. As our business expands to include new uses or collection of data that are subject to privacy or security regulations, our compliance requirements and costs will increase, and we may be subject to increased regulatory scrutiny. See Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Government regulations applicable to us may negatively impact our business” of this Report for additional information.

Intellectual Property

Our business is based on the creation, acquisition, use and protection of intellectual property. Some of this intellectual property is in the form of software code, trademarks and copyrights, and trade secrets that we use to develop our games and to enable them to run properly on multiple platforms. Other intellectual property we integrate includes audio-visual elements, including graphics, music and interface design.

While most of the intellectual property we use has been created or acquired by us, we have licensed rights to certain significant proprietary intellectual property. We have also licensed rights from third parties to use certain significant marquee racing brands and related intellectual property (See, “Strategic Licenses and Partnerships”). These agreements typically limit our use of the third party’s respective intellectual property to specific uses and for specific time periods, in consideration for up-front and recurring royalty payments that are typically based upon our sales of the respective products.

We protect our intellectual property rights by relying on federal, state and common law rights, as well as contractual restrictions. We control access to our proprietary technology by entering into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors, and nondisclosure agreements with third parties. We also engage in monitoring and enforcement activities with respect to infringing uses of our intellectual property by third parties.

In addition to these contractual arrangements, we also rely on a combination of trade secret, copyright, trademark, trade dress and domain names to protect our games and other intellectual property. We typically own the copyright to the software code to our content, as well as the brand or title name trademark under which our games are marketed. We pursue the registration of our domain names, trademarks, and service marks in the United States and in certain locations outside the United States.

Corporate History and Available Information

Motorsport Gaming US LLC was organized as a limited liability company on August 2, 2018 under the laws of the State of Florida. On January 8, 2021, Motorsport Gaming US LLC converted into a Delaware corporation pursuant to a statutory conversion and changed its name to Motorsport Games Inc. in connection with our IPO. Effective as of January 8, 2021, 100% of the membership interests held by the sole member of Motorsport Gaming US LLC, Motorsport Network, converted into an aggregate of (i) 700,000 shares of Class A common stock of Motorsport Games Inc., which have 1 vote per share (the “MSN Initial Class A Shares”) and (ii) 700,000 shares of Class B common stock, which have 10 votes per share, of Motorsport Games Inc., which represented all of the outstanding shares of Class A and Class B common stock immediately following the corporate conversion. Motorsport Network is the only holder of shares of the Company’s Class B common stock and does not have any transfer, conversion, registration, or economic rights with respect to such shares of Class B common stock.

In November 2022, the Company amended its certificate of incorporation to effectuate a reverse split of the issued and outstanding shares of Class A common stock and Class B common stock at a ratio of 1-for-10. Shares underlying outstanding equity-based awards were proportionately decreased and the respective per share exercise prices, if applicable, were proportionately increased in accordance with the terms of the agreements governing such securities. There was no change in the par value of the Class A common stock and Class B common stock as a result of the reverse stock split.

Our Internet address is www.motorsportgames.com. We make available free of charge through our website copies of our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), as soon as reasonably practicable after such documents are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. The SEC maintains a website, www.sec.gov that contains the reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. The information contained on our website is not included as a part of, or incorporated by reference into, this Report.

Item 1A. Risk Factors

The following discussion of risk factors contains forward-looking statements. These risk factors may be important to understanding other statements in this Report. The following information should be read in conjunction with Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes in Part II, Item 8, “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of this Report.

The business, financial condition and operating results of the Company can be affected by a number of factors, whether currently known or unknown, including but not limited to those described below, any one or more of which could, directly or indirectly, cause the Company’s actual financial condition and operating results to vary materially from past, or from anticipated future, financial condition and operating results. Any of these factors, in whole or in part, could materially and adversely affect the Company’s business, financial condition, operating results and stock price. Because of the following factors, as well as other factors affecting the Company’s financial condition and operating results, past financial performance should not be considered to be a reliable indicator of future performance, and investors should not use historical trends to anticipate results or trends in future periods.

Risks Related to Our Financial Condition and Liquidity

We have incurred significant losses since our inception, and we expect to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future. Accordingly, our financial condition raises substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern.

We incurred a net loss of $36.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 and had negative cash flows from operations of approximately $19.5 million. As of December 31, 2022, we had an accumulated deficit of $74.0 million. We expect to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future as we continue to incur significant expenses to support the planned costs to operate our business, including amounts required to fund working capital, support the development and introduction of new products, maintain existing titles, and certain capital expenditures. Additionally, we expect our expenses to continue to increase due to the additional operational and reporting costs associated with being a public company.

As a result of our financial condition, management has concluded that there is substantial doubt in our ability to continue as a going concern. The report of our independent registered public accountant on our financial statements as of and for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 also includes explanatory language describing the existence of substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. There have been no adjustments to the accompanying financial statements to reflect this uncertainty. See Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – Liquidity and Going Concern” of this Report and Note 1 – Business Organization, Nature of Operations and Risks and Uncertainties in our consolidated financial statements for additional information.

Management currently believes that it will be necessary for us to secure additional funds to continue our existing business operations and to fund our obligations. We may choose to raise additional funds during 2023 through a variety of equity and/or debt financing arrangements; however, there are currently no commitments in place for future financing and there can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain funds on commercially acceptable terms, if at all. If we cannot generate sufficient revenues, reduce cost and/or secure additional financing on acceptable terms, we may be required to, among other things, alter our business strategy, significantly curtail or discontinue operations or obtain funds by entering into financing agreements on unattractive terms. See “—Risks Related to Our Financial Condition and Liquidity—We will require additional capital to meet our financial obligations, and this capital might not be available on acceptable terms or at all” below for additional information.

We will require additional capital to meet our financial obligations, and this capital might not be available on acceptable terms or at all.

We expect to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future as we continue to incur significant expenses. Accordingly, as a result of our financial condition, we will need to engage in equity and/or debt financing arrangements to secure additional funds to continue our existing business operations and to fund our obligations. If we raise additional funds through future issuances of equity (including preferred stock) or convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges superior to those of holders of our Class A common stock, including, without limitation, in respect of the payment of dividends and the payment of liquidating distributions. Because our decision to issue debt or preferred securities in any future offering, or to borrow money from lenders, will depend in part on market conditions and other factors beyond our control, we cannot predict or estimate the amount, timing, or nature of any such future offerings or borrowings. For example, financial market instability or disruptions to the banking system due to bank failures, particularly in light of the recent events that have occurred with respect to Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, may adversely affect our ability to enter into new financing arrangements and facilities, or our ability to access existing cash, cash equivalents and investments.

Holders of our Class A common stock will bear the risk of any such future offerings or borrowings. Further, any future debt financing could require compliance with restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. Debt financing must be repaid regardless of whether we generate revenues or cash flows from operations and may be secured by substantially all of our assets.

There are currently no commitments in place to satisfy our future needed liquidity and capital resources and there can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain funds on commercially acceptable terms, if at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate funds on acceptable terms, we may be required to, among other things, significantly curtail or discontinue operations or obtain funds by entering into financing agreements on unattractive terms.

If we are unable to satisfy our cash requirements, including from any equity and/or debt financing arrangements, we could be required to adopt one or more of the following alternatives:

There can be no assurance that we would be able to take any of the actions referred to above because of a variety of commercial or market factors, including, without limitation, market conditions being unfavorable for an equity or debt issuance, additional capital contributions and/or loans not being available from Motorsport Network or affiliates and/or third parties, or that the transactions may not be permitted under the terms of our various debt instruments then in effect, such as due to restrictions on the incurrence of debt, incurrence of liens, asset dispositions and related party transactions. In addition, such actions, if taken, may not enable us to satisfy our cash requirements if the actions that we are able to consummate do not generate a sufficient amount of additional capital. See Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – Liquidity and Going Concern” of this Report and Note 1 – Business Organization, Nature of Operations and Risks and Uncertainties in our consolidated financial statements for additional information.

Limits on our borrowing capacity under the $12 million Line of Credit may affect our ability to finance our operations.

Our ability to borrow additional funds under the $12 million Line of Credit is limited by Motorsport Network’s ability to fund such borrowing requests. If and to the extent that Motorsport Network were to be unable to fund any such requests, we will not have complete access to some or all of the commitment available under the $12 million Line of Credit, but rather would have access to a lesser amount as determined by Motorsport Network’s ability to fund our borrowing requests. Given the state of the financial markets, we have recently assessed our exposure to any potential non-performance by Motorsport Network and believes that there is a substantial likelihood that Motorsport Network may not fulfill our future borrowing requests. Because of these limitations, we do not rely on being able to meet our cash requirements with any additional fundings under the $12 million Line of Credit. If Motorsport Network is unable to fulfill their commitment to advance funds to us under the $12 million Line of Credit, it would impact our potential sources of liquidity and, depending upon the amount involved and our liquidity requirements, it could have an adverse effect on our ability to fund our operations, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, results of operations, financial condition and/or cash flows.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

If we do not consistently deliver popular products or if consumers prefer competing products, our business may be negatively impacted.

In order to remain competitive, we must continuously develop new products or enhancements to our existing products. Consumer preferences for games are usually cyclical and difficult to predict, and even the most successful content remains popular for only a limited period of time unless refreshed or otherwise enhanced. These products or enhancements may not be well-received by consumers, even if well-reviewed and of high quality. Further, competitors may develop content that imitates or competes with our best-selling games, potentially taking sales away from us or reducing our ability to charge the same prices we have historically charged for our products. These competing products may take a larger share of consumer spending than anticipated, which could cause product sales to fall below expectations. If we do not continue to develop consistently high-quality and well-received games, if our marketing fails to resonate with our consumers, if consumers lose interest in a genre of games we produce, if the use of cross-promotion within our mobile games to retain consumers becomes less effective, or if our competitors develop more successful products or offer competitive products at lower prices, our revenues and profit margins could decline. For example, our NASCAR 21: Ignition game released in October 2021 was generally not well-received and, as a result, our revenues for the year ended December 31, 2022 were adversely affected due to lower game sales. Further, a failure by us to develop a high-quality product, or our development of a product that is otherwise not well-received, could potentially result in additional expenditures to respond to consumer demands, harm our reputation, and increase the likelihood that our future products will not be well- received. The increased importance of downloadable content to our business amplifies these risks, as downloadable content for poorly-received games typically generates lower-than-expected sales. In addition, our own best-selling products could compete with our other games, reducing sales for those other games.

Our business and products are highly concentrated in the racing game genre, and our operating results may suffer if consumer preferences shift away from this genre.

All of our revenue is currently generated, and is expected to continue to be substantially generated, from products in the racing game genre. Accordingly, our future success will depend on the popularity of games in the racing game genre with consumers. Consumer preferences are difficult to predict and subject to frequent changes, and if interest in the racing game genre declines, even if our share of the racing game genre is stable or expands, our operating results could suffer. Additionally, our concentration in the racing game genre could place us at a disadvantage against other gaming companies that offer a more diverse selection of games.

If we do not provide high-quality products, our business may be negatively impacted.

Consumer expectations regarding the quality, performance and integrity of our products and services are high. Consumers may be critical of our brands, games, services and/or business practices for a wide variety of reasons, and such negative reactions may not be foreseeable or within our control to manage effectively. For example, if our games or services, such as our creation and organization of esports leagues and events, do not function as consumers expect, whether because they fail to function as advertised or otherwise, our sales may suffer, as was the case with our NASCAR 21: Ignition game as discussed above. If any of these issues occur, consumers may stop playing the game and may be less likely to return to the game as often in the future, which may negatively impact our business.

If we fail to deliver products in a timely manner, our business may be negatively impacted.

Delays in product releases or disruptions following the commercial release of one or more new products could negatively impact our business, our revenues and reputation and could cause our results of operations to be materially different from expectations. This is particularly the case where we seek to release certain products in conjunction with key events, such as the beginning of a racing season or a major racing event. If we fail to release our products in a timely manner, or if we are unable to continue to improve our existing games by adding features and functionality that will encourage continued engagement with these games, our business may be negatively impacted. Moreover, if we or our third-party developers experience unanticipated development delays, financial difficulties, or additional costs, for example as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic or the current labor supply constraints affecting many industries, we may not be able to release titles according to our schedule and at budgeted costs. There can be no assurance that our products will be sufficiently successful so that we can recoup these costs or make a profit on these products.

Additionally, the amount of lead time and cost involved in the development of high-quality products is increasing due to growing technical complexities and higher expectations from consumers. As a result, it is especially critical that we accurately predict consumer demand for such products. If our future products do not achieve expected consumer acceptance or generate sufficient revenues upon introduction, we may not be able to recover the substantial up-front development and marketing costs associated with those products.

The ongoing and prolonged COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our operations and, if it reemerges in severity in the future, may further adversely affect our business operations, financial performance, financial condition, liquidity, cash flows and/or results of operations, the extent of which is uncertain and difficult to predict.

The lingering impact of COVID-19 has continued to create significant volatility throughout the global economy, such as supply chain disruptions, limited labor supplies, higher inflation, and recession, which in turn has caused constraints on consumer spending. More recently, new variants of COVID-19, such as the Omicron variant and its subvariants, that are significantly more contagious than previous strains, have emerged. Further, the effectiveness of approved vaccines on these new strains remains uncertain. The spread of these new strains initially caused many government authorities and businesses to reimplement prior restrictions in an effort to lessen the spread of COVID-19 and its variants. However, while many of these restrictions have been lifted, uncertainty remains as to whether additional restrictions may be initiated or again reimplemented in response to surges in COVID-19 cases.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the related responses from government authorities, our business and operations have been impacted, including the temporary closures of our offices in Miami, Florida, and Silverstone, England, which resulted in many of our employees working remotely. Throughout the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, several retailers experienced closures, reduced operating hours and/or other restrictions, which negatively impacted the sales of our products from such retailers. Additionally, in our esports business, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the cancellation or postponement of certain events to later dates or the shifting of events from an in-person format to online only.

Our business operations, financial performance and results of operations have been and could be further adversely affected in a number of ways, particularly if the COVID-19 pandemic remerges in severity in the future including, but not limited to, the following:

Additionally, an increase in the number of employees working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic also increases the potential adverse impact of risk associated with information technology systems and networks, including cyber-attacks, computer viruses, malicious software, security breaches, and telecommunication failures, both for systems and networks we control directly and for those that employees and third-party developers rely on to work remotely. Any failure to prevent or mitigate security breaches or cyber risks or detect, or respond adequately to, a security breach or cyber risk, or any other disruptions to our information technology systems and networks, can have adverse effects on our business.

The spread of COVID-19 has caused us to modify our business practices (including employee travel, employee work locations, and cancellation of physical participation in meetings, events and conferences), and we may take further actions as may be required by government authorities or that we determine are prudent to support the well-being of the Company’s employees, suppliers, business partners and others.

Any of the foregoing could adversely affect our business operations, financial performance and results of operations. The potential effects of COVID-19 may also impact and potentially heighten many of our other risk factors discussed in this “Risk Factors” section. The degree to which the ongoing and prolonged COVID-19 pandemic impacts our operations, business, financial results, liquidity, and financial condition will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain, continuously evolving and cannot be predicted. This includes, but is not limited to, the duration and spread of the pandemic; its severity; the emergence and severity of its variants; the actions to contain the virus or treat its impact, such as the availability and efficacy of vaccines (particularly with respect to emerging strains of the virus) and potential hesitancy to utilize them; the effect on discretionary spending by consumers; and how quickly and to what extent normal economic and operating conditions can resume.

Declines in consumer spending and other adverse changes in economic, market and geopolitical conditions could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

Our business is subject to economic, market and geopolitical conditions, which are beyond our control. In particular, our product purchases are predominately driven by discretionary spending by consumers. We believe that consumer spending is influenced by general economic conditions and the availability of discretionary income. This makes our products particularly sensitive to general economic conditions and economic cycles as consumers are generally more willing to make discretionary purchases, including purchases of products like ours, during periods in which favorable economic conditions prevail. Adverse economic, market and geopolitical conditions, such as a prolonged U.S. or international general economic downturn, whether or not caused by the COVID-19 pandemic or geopolitical issues, including the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, could result in further periods of increased inflation, unemployment levels, tax rates, interest rates, energy prices, or declining consumer confidence, which would also reduce consumer spending. Reduced consumer spending may in the future result in reduced demand for our products and may also require increased selling and promotional expenses, which has had and may continue to have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results. In addition, during periods of relative economic weakness, our consolidated credit risk, reflecting our counterparty dealings with distributors, customers, capital providers and others may increase, perhaps materially so. Furthermore, uncertainty and adverse changes in the economy could also increase the risk of material losses on our investments, costs associated with developing and publishing our products, the cost and availability of sources of financing, and our exposure to material losses from bad debts, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results. If economic conditions worsen, our business, financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected.

We are particularly susceptible to market conditions and risks specific to the entertainment industry, which include the popularity, price, and timing of our products; changes in consumer demographics; the availability and popularity of other forms of entertainment and leisure; and critical reviews and public tastes and preferences, which may change rapidly and cannot necessarily be predicted.

The video game and esports industry is significantly dependent on the popularity of a small number of games, and we may not have access to “hit” games or titles.

The video game and esports industries have generally been dominated by a select few “hit” game titles. Accordingly, the success of our esports events will be closely linked to the quality and popularity of the games we publish or support for our esports events. Further, if we are unable to produce engaging and popular games, we may fail to sell the expected number of console games, meet our target install number for our mobile games, attract sufficient numbers of gamers to participate in our esports events attract a growing audience for our live esports streams, all of which may have a material and adverse impact on our results of operations and financial conditions.

We depend on a relatively small number of franchises for a significant portion of our revenues and profits.

We follow a franchise model and a significant portion of our revenues has historically been derived from products based on a relatively small number of popular franchises. These products are responsible for a disproportionately high percentage of our profits. For example, revenues associated with our NASCAR franchise accounted for approximately 63% and 88% of our total revenue for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. In the future, we expect this trend to continue with a relatively limited number of franchises producing a disproportionately high percentage of our revenues and profits. Due to this dependence on a limited number of franchises, the failure to achieve anticipated results by one or more products based on these franchises could negatively impact our business. Additionally, if the popularity of a franchise declines, we may have to write off the unrecovered portion of the underlying intellectual property assets, which could negatively impact our business.

Our ability to acquire and maintain licenses to intellectual property, especially for sports titles, affects our revenue and profitability. Competition for these licenses may make them more expensive and increase our costs.

Most of our products and services are based on or incorporate intellectual property owned by others. For example, we have obtained an exclusive license for our NASCAR racing video games and related-esports franchise (subject to certain limited exceptions), as well as licenses to develop multi-platform games for the BTCC, the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, the WEC and INDYCAR. Additionally, through a series of joint ventures and other agreements with various racing series, we own exclusive rights to operate various esports tournaments and leagues, including the Le Mans Virtual Series and the eNHPL. Competition for these licenses and rights is intense. If we are unable to maintain these licenses and rights or obtain additional licenses or rights with significant commercial value, our ability to develop successful and engaging games and services may be adversely affected and our revenue, profitability and cash flows may decline significantly. Competition for these licenses also may increase minimum guarantees and royalty rates payable to licensors and developers, which could significantly increase our costs and reduce our profitability.

The importance of retail sales to our business exposes us to the risks of that business model.

While our customer base is increasingly purchasing our games as digital downloads, retail sales will remain important to our business. These physical gaming products are sold through a distribution network with an exclusive partner who specializes in the distribution of games through mass-market retailers (e.g., Target, Wal-Mart), consumer electronics stores (e.g., Best Buy), discount warehouses, game specialty stores (e.g., GameStop) and other online retail stores (e.g., Amazon). The loss of, or a significant reduction in sales by, any of these retailers could have adverse consequences to our business and results of operations.

Moreover, the importance of retail sales to our business exposes us to the risk of price protection with respect to our distribution partners and retailers. Price protection, when granted, allows these distribution partners and retailers to receive a credit from us against amounts owed to us with respect to merchandise unsold by them. We typically grant price protection to distribution partners and retailers who meet certain conditions, which include compliance with applicable payment and marketing terms, delivery of weekly inventory and sales information and consistent participation in the launches of premium title releases. We may also consider other factors, including the facilitation of slow-moving inventory and other industry factors. Although we maintain a reserve for price protection, and although we may place limits on price protection, we may be required to provide substantial price protection to maintain our relationships with retailers and our distribution partners.

Further, retailers typically have a limited amount of “brick and mortar” shelf space and promotional resources, and there is intense competition for high-quality retail shelf space and promotional support from retailers. Similarly, for online retail sales, there is increasing competition for premium placement on websites. Competition for shelf space or premium online placement may intensify and require us to increase our marketing expenditures. Additionally, retailers with limited shelf space typically devote the most and highest quality shelf space to those products expected to be best sellers, such as those perceived to be “AAA” titles. We cannot be certain that our new products will achieve such “best seller” status. Due to increased competition for limited shelf space, retailers and distribution partners are in an increasingly strong position to negotiate favorable terms of sale, including price discounts, price protection and marketing and display fees, as applicable. Our products constitute a relatively small percentage of most retailers’ sales volume. We cannot be certain that retailers will continue to purchase our products or provide those products with adequate levels of shelf space and promotional support on acceptable terms.

We primarily depend on a single third-party distribution partner to distribute our games for the retail channel, and our ability to negotiate favorable terms with such partner and its continued willingness to purchase our games is critical for our business.

As discussed above, our physical gaming products are sold through a distribution network with an exclusive partner who specializes in the distribution of games through mass-market retailers, consumer electronics stores, discount warehouses, game specialty stores and other online retail stores. We expect to continue to derive significant revenues from sales of our physical gaming products to a very limited number of distribution partners. For the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, we sold substantially all of our physical disk products for the retail channel through a single distribution partner, which represented approximately 9% and 28% of our total revenue for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. This concentration of sales to a single distribution partner could lead to a disruption to our business if this partner significantly reduces its purchases or ceases to offer our products. We also could be more vulnerable to collection risk if this partner experiences a deterioration of its business or declares bankruptcy. Having a significant portion of our retail sales concentrated through a single distribution partner could also reduce our negotiating leverage. Accordingly, if we are unable to negotiate favorable terms with our existing or future distribution partners, our business and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Our current and future digital entertainment and community platforms are dependent on our ability to provide interesting and useful high-quality content and experiences.

The quality of the content on our current and future digital entertainment and community platforms, including Traxion, is critical to the success of such platforms. In order to attract and retain users, we must offer interesting and high-quality content and user experiences. Further, we must remain sensitive and responsive to evolving user preferences and offer content and experiences that appeal to our users. If we are unable to generate quality content and user experiences satisfactory to our users, we may suffer from reduced user traffic, which could negatively impact our business.

Our business is partly dependent on our ability to enter into successful software development arrangements with third parties.

We currently rely on third-party software developers for the partial development of all of our titles, and in the future, we expect to continue to rely on third-party software developers for the partial development of some of our titles. Accordingly, our success depends in part on our ability to enter into successful software development arrangements with such third-party developers. Generally, quality third-party developers are continually in high demand. Software developers who have helped develop titles for us in the past may not be available to develop software for us in the future for various reasons, including their engagement on other projects. Due to the limited number of quality third-party software developers and the limited control that we exercise over them, these developers may not be able to complete titles for us on a timely basis, within acceptable quality standards, or at all. Additionally, we have entered into agreements with certain third parties to use licensed intellectual property in our titles. These agreements typically require us to make development payments, pay license fees and satisfy other conditions. Our development payments may not be sufficient to permit developers to develop new software successfully, which could result in material delays and significantly increase our costs in bringing particular products to market. Future sales of our titles may not be sufficient to recover development payments and advances to software developers and licensors, and we may not have adequate financial and other resources to satisfy our contractual commitments to such developers. If we fail to satisfy our obligations under agreements with third-party developers and licensors, the agreements may be terminated or modified in ways that are burdensome to us, and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

Our business depends in part on the success and availability of platforms and mass media channels developed by third parties and our ability to develop commercially successful content, products, and services for those platforms.

The success of our business is driven in part by the commercial success and adequate supply of third-party platforms for which we develop our products and services or through which our products and services are distributed or marketed, including our league tournaments and competitions, such as through Twitch. Our success also depends on our ability to accurately predict which channels, platforms and distribution methods will be successful in the marketplace, our ability to develop commercially successful content, products and services for these platforms, our ability to simultaneously manage products and services on multiple platforms, our ability to effectively transition our products and services to new platforms, and our ability to effectively manage the transition of our gamers from one generation or demographic to the next. We must make product development decisions and commit significant resources well in advance of the commercial availability of new platforms and channels, and we may incur significant expense to adjust our product portfolio and development efforts in response to changing consumer preferences. Additionally, we may enter into certain exclusive licensing arrangements that affect our ability to deliver or market products or services on certain channels and platforms. A platform for which we are developing products and services may not succeed as expected or new platforms may take market share and interactive entertainment consumers away from platforms for which we have devoted significant resources. If consumer demand for the channels or platforms for which we are developing products and services is lower than our expectations, we may be unable to fully recover the investments we have made in developing our products and services, and our financial performance will be harmed. Alternatively, a channel or platform for which we have not devoted significant resources could be more successful than we initially anticipated, causing us to not be able to take advantage of meaningful revenue opportunities.

Third-party platform providers may be able to influence our products and costs.

We plan to derive significant revenues from the distribution of certain of our future products on third-party mobile and web platforms, such as the Apple App Store, the Google Play Store, and Facebook. These platforms may also serve as significant online distribution platforms for, and/or provide other services critical for the operation of, a number of our games. If these platforms modify their current or future discovery mechanisms, communication channels available to developers, operating systems, terms of service or other policies (including fees), or they develop their own competitive offerings, our business could be negatively impacted. Additionally, if these platform providers are required to change how they label free-to-play games or take payment for in-app purchases or change how the personal information of consumers is made available to developers, our business could be negatively impacted.

Moreover, when we develop interactive entertainment software products for hardware platforms offered by companies such as Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo, the physical products are replicated exclusively by that hardware manufacturer or their approved replicator. The agreements with these manufacturers typically include certain provisions, such as approval rights over all software products and related promotional materials and the ability to change the fee they charge for the manufacturing of products, which allow the hardware manufacturers substantial influence over the cost and the release schedule of such interactive entertainment software products. In addition, because each of the manufacturers is also a publisher of games for its own hardware platforms and may manufacture products for other licensees, a manufacturer may give priority to its own products or those of our competitors. Accordingly, console manufacturers like Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo could cause unanticipated delays in the release of our products, as well as increases to projected development, manufacturing, marketing or distribution costs, any of which could negatively impact our business.

The platform providers also control the networks over which consumers purchase digital products and services for their platforms and through which we provide online game capabilities for our products. The control that the platform providers have over the fee structures and/or retail pricing for products and services for their platforms and online networks could impact the volume of purchases of our products made over their networks and our profitability. With respect to certain downloadable content and microtransactions, the networks provided by these platform providers are the exclusive means of selling and distributing this content. Further, increased competition for limited premium “digital shelf space” has placed the platform providers in an increasingly better position to negotiate favorable terms of sale. If the platform provider establishes terms that restrict our offerings on its platform, significantly changes the financial terms on which these products or services are offered, or does not approve the inclusion of online capabilities in our console products, our business could be negatively impacted.

If we do not adequately address the shift to mobile device technology by our customers, operating results could be harmed and our financial performance, financial condition, liquidity, cash flows and/or growth plans could be negatively affected.

Consumers are increasingly using their mobile devices for entertainment, including for playing mobile games. As a result, our future success depends in part on our ability to develop and publish mobile games that consumers will download and spend time and money playing. We must continue to invest resources in research and development, technology, analytics and marketing to introduce new mobile games and continue to update existing mobile games. The of success of our mobile games may be affected by unpredictable and volatile factors beyond our control, including consumer preferences and the number of applications they are willing to download and maintain on their devices, competing gaming and non-gaming related applications and new mobile platforms. Even if our mobile games are widely downloaded, we may fail to retain users or optimize the monetization of these games. This may occur for a variety of reasons, including poor game design or quality, lack of social and community features, gameplay issues such as game unavailability, long load times or an unexpected termination of the game due to data server or other technical issues, lack of differentiation from predecessor games or other competitive games, lack of innovative features, differences in user demographics and purchasing power, or our failure to effectively respond and adapt to changing user preferences through game updates.

The increasing importance of free-to-play games to our business exposes us to the risks of that business model, including the dependence on a relatively small number of consumers for a significant portion of revenues and profits from any given game.

Currently, only our NASCAR Heat Mobile title is a free-to-play game, but the success of our business is partially dependent on our ability to develop, enhance and monetize additional free-to-play games. As such, we are increasingly exposed to the risks of the free-to-play business model. For example, we may invest in the development of new free-to- play interactive entertainment products that do not achieve significant commercial success, in which case our revenues from those products likely will be lower than anticipated and we may not recover our development costs. Further, if: (1) we are unable to continue to offer free-to-play games that encourage consumers to purchase our virtual currency and subsequently use it to buy our virtual items; (2) we fail to offer monetization features that appeal to these consumers; (3) these consumers do not continue to play our free-to-play games or purchase virtual items at the same rate; (4) our platform providers make it more difficult or expensive for players to purchase our virtual currency; or (5) we cannot encourage significant additional consumers to purchase virtual items in our free-to-play games, our business may be negatively impacted.

Furthermore, as there are relatively low barriers to entry to developing mobile or online free-to-play or other casual games, we expect new competitors to enter the market and existing competitors to allocate more resources to developing and marketing competing games and applications. We compete, or may compete, with a vast number of small companies and individuals who are able to create and launch casual games and other content using relatively limited resources and with relatively limited start-up time or expertise. Competition for the attention of consumers on mobile devices is intense, as the number of applications on mobile devices has been increasing dramatically, which, in turn, has required increased marketing to garner consumer awareness and attention. This increased competition could negatively impact our business. In addition, a continuing industry shift to free-to-play games could result in a reprioritization of our other products by traditional retailers and distributors.

We are subject to risks associated with operating in a rapidly developing industry and a relatively new market.

Many elements of our business are unique, evolving and relatively unproven. In particular, our esports business and prospects depend on the continuing development of live streaming of competitive esports gaming. The market for esports and amateur online gaming competitions is relatively new and rapidly developing and is subject to significant challenges. Our business relies upon our ability to cultivate and grow an active gamer community, and our ability to successfully monetize such community, including, for example, through tournament fees, subscriptions for our esports gaming services, and advertising and sponsorship opportunities. In addition, our continued growth depends, in part, on our ability to respond to constant changes in the esports gaming industry, including rapid technological evolution, continued shifts in gamer trends and demands, frequent introductions of new games and titles and the constant emergence of new industry standards and practices. Developing and integrating new games, titles, content, products, services or infrastructure could be expensive and time-consuming, and these efforts may not yield the benefits we expect to achieve. We cannot assure you that we will succeed in any of these aspects or that the esports gaming industry will continue to grow as rapidly as it has in the past.

We plan to continue to generate a portion of our revenues from advertising and sponsorship during our esports events. If we fail to attract more advertisers and sponsors to our gaming platform, tournaments or competitions, our revenues may be adversely affected.

We plan to continue to generate a portion of our revenues from advertising and sponsorship during our esports events as online viewership of our esports gaming offerings expand. Our revenues from advertising and sponsorship partly depend on the continual development of the online advertising industry and advertisers’ willingness to allocate budgets to online advertising in the esports gaming industry. In addition, companies that decide to advertise or promote online may utilize more established methods or channels, such as more established internet portals or search engines, over advertising on our gaming platform. If the online advertising and sponsorship market does not continue to grow, or if we are unable to capture and retain a sufficient share of that market, our ability to increase our current level of advertising and sponsorship revenue and our profitability and prospects may be materially and adversely affected.

We are reliant on the retention of certain key personnel and the hiring of strategically valuable personnel, and we may lose or be unable to hire one or more of such personnel.

Our success depends in part on the continued service of our senior management team, key technical employees and other highly skilled personnel and on our ability to identify, hire, develop, motivate, retain and integrate highly qualified personnel for all areas of our organization. Certain employees, such as game designers, product managers and engineers, are in high demand, and we devote significant resources to identifying, hiring, training, successfully integrating and retaining these employees. We have historically hired a number of key personnel through acquisitions, and as competition with several other game companies increases, we may incur significant expenses in continuing this practice. If we are unable to attract and retain the necessary personnel, particularly in critical areas of our business, we may not achieve our strategic goals.

Competition in the interactive entertainment industry is intense, and our existing and potential users may be attracted to competing products or other forms of entertainment.

We compete with other publishers of interactive entertainment software, both within and outside the United States. Generally, some of our competitors include very large corporations with significantly greater financial, marketing and product development resources than we have. Our larger competitors may be able to leverage their greater financial, technical, personnel and other resources to provide larger budgets for development and marketing and make higher offers to licensors and developers for commercially desirable properties, as well as adopt more aggressive pricing policies to develop more commercially successful video game products than we do. In addition, competitors with large portfolios and popular games typically have greater influence with platform providers, retailers, distributors and other customers who may, in turn, provide more favorable support to those competitors’ games.

Further, the esports gaming industry generally is highly competitive. For our esports business, our competitors range from established leagues and championships owned directly, as well as leagues franchised by, well-known and capitalized game publishers and developers, interactive entertainment companies and diversified media companies to emerging start-ups, and we expect new competitors to continue to emerge throughout the amateur esports gaming ecosystem. If our competitors develop and launch competing amateur city leagues, tournaments or competitions, or develop a more successful amateur online gaming platform for games similar to ours, then our revenue, margins, and profitability will decline.

Additionally, we compete with other forms of entertainment and leisure activities. As our business continues to expand in complexity and scope, we have increased exposure to additional competitors, including those with access to large existing user bases and control over distribution channels. Further, it is difficult to predict and prepare for rapid changes in consumer demand that could materially alter public preferences for different forms of entertainment and leisure activities. Failure to adequately identify and adapt to these competitive pressures could negatively impact our business.

Our revenue may be harmed by the proliferation of “cheating” programs and scam offers that seek to exploit our games and players, which may negatively affect players’ game-playing experiences and our ability to reliably validate our audience metric reporting and may lead players to stop playing our games.

Unrelated third parties have developed, and may continue to develop, “cheating” programs that enable players to exploit vulnerabilities in our games, play them in an automated way, collude to alter the intended game play or obtain unfair advantages over other players who do play fairly. These programs harm the experience of players who play fairly and may reduce the demand for virtual items, disrupting our in-game economy. If we are unable to discover and disable these programs quickly, our operations may be disrupted, our reputation may be damaged, players may stop playing our games and our ability to reliably validate our audience metrics may be negatively affected. These “cheating” programs and scam offers may result in lost revenue from paying players, disrupt our in-game economies, divert our personnel’s time, increase costs of developing technological measures to combat these programs and activities, increase our customer service costs needed to respond to dissatisfied players, and lead to legal claims.

Some of our players may make sales or purchases of virtual items used in our games through unauthorized or fraudulent third-party websites, which may reduce our revenue.

Virtual items in our games have no monetary value outside of our games. Nonetheless, some of our players may make sales and/or purchases of our virtual items through unauthorized third-party sellers in exchange for real currency. These unauthorized or fraudulent transactions are usually arranged on third-party websites. The virtual items offered may have been obtained through unauthorized means such as exploiting vulnerabilities in our games, scamming our players with fake offers for virtual items or other game benefits, or credit card fraud. We do not generate any revenue from these transactions. These unauthorized purchases and sales from third-party sellers could impede our revenue and profit growth by, among other things:

There can be no assurance that our efforts to prevent or minimize these unauthorized or fraudulent transactions will be successful.

The success of our business relies heavily on our marketing and branding efforts, and these efforts may not be accepted by consumers to the extent we planned.

Because we are a consumer brand, we rely heavily on marketing and advertising to increase brand visibility with potential customers. We currently advertise through a blend of direct and indirect advertising channels, including through activities on Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, YouTube and other online social networks, online advertising, public relations activity, print and broadcast advertising, coordinated in-store and industry promotions (including merchandising and point of purchase displays), participation in cooperative advertising programs, direct response vehicles, and product sampling through demonstration software distributed through the Internet or the digital online services provided by our partners. If we are unable to recover our marketing costs, or if our broad marketing campaigns are not successful or are terminated, it could have a material adverse effect on our growth, results of operations and financial condition.

Our games are subject to scrutiny regarding the appropriateness of their content. If we fail to receive our target ratings for certain titles, or if our retailers refuse to sell such titles due to what they perceive to be objectionable content, it could have a negative impact on our business.

Certain of our gaming products are subject to ratings by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (the “ESRB”), a self-regulatory body based in the United States that provides U.S. and Canadian consumers of interactive entertainment software with ratings information, including information on the content in such software, such as violence, nudity, or sexual content, along with an assessment of the suitability of the content for certain age groups. Certain other countries have also established content rating systems as prerequisites for product sales in those countries. In addition, certain stores use other ratings systems, such as Apple’s use of its proprietary “App Rating System” and Google Play’s use of the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) rating system. If we are unable to obtain the ratings we have targeted for our products, it could have a negative impact on our business. In some instances, we may be required to modify our products to meet the requirements of the rating systems, which could delay or disrupt the release of any given product, or may prevent its sale altogether in certain territories. Further, if one of our games is “re-rated” for any reason, a ratings organization could require corrective actions, which could include a recall, retailers could refuse to sell it and demand that we accept the return of any unsold or returned copies or consumers could demand a refund for copies previously purchased.

Additionally, although lawsuits seeking damages for injuries allegedly suffered by third parties as a result of video games have generally been unsuccessful in the courts, claims of this kind may be asserted and be successful in the future.

Government regulations applicable to us may negatively impact our business.

We are subject to a number of foreign and domestic laws and regulations that affect companies conducting business on the Internet. In addition, laws and regulations relating to user privacy, electronic contracts and communications, mobile communications, data collection, retention, consumer protection, and publishing activities, including production and delivery of content, advertising, localization, and information security have been adopted or are being considered for adoption by many jurisdictions and countries throughout the world. These laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation and the California Consumer Privacy Act, which have restricted our ability to gather and use data about our users, could harm our business by limiting the products and services we can offer consumers or the manner in which we offer them. Data privacy, data protection, localization, security and consumer-protection laws are evolving, and the interpretation and application of these laws in the United States (including compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act), Europe (including compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation), and elsewhere often are uncertain, contradictory and changing. It is possible that these laws may be interpreted or applied in a manner that is averse to us or otherwise inconsistent with our practices, which could result in litigation, regulatory investigations and potential legal liability or require us to change our practices in a manner adverse to our business. As a result, our reputation and brand may be harmed, we could incur substantial costs, and we could lose both gamers and revenue. Furthermore, the costs of compliance with these laws may increase in the future as a result of changes in interpretation. Any failure on our part to comply with these laws or the application of these laws in an unanticipated manner may harm our business and result in penalties or significant legal liability.

Certain of our business models could be subject to new laws or regulations or evolving interpretations of existing laws and regulations. For example, the growth and development of electronic commerce, virtual items and virtual currency has prompted calls for laws and regulations that could limit or restrict the sale of our products and services or otherwise impact our products and services. In addition, we include modes in our games that allow players to compete against each other and manage player competitions that are based on our products and services. New laws related to these business models, or changes in the interpretation of current laws that impact these business models, could subject us to additional regulation and oversight, lessen the engagement with, and growth of, profitable business models, and expose us to increased compliance costs, significant liability, penalties and harm to our reputation and brand.

We are subject to laws in certain foreign countries, and adhere to industry standards in the United States, that mandate rating requirements or set other restrictions on the advertisement or distribution of interactive entertainment software based on content. In addition, certain foreign countries allow government censorship of interactive entertainment software products. Adoption of ratings systems, censorship or restrictions on distribution of interactive entertainment software based on content could harm our business by limiting the products we are able to offer to our customers. In addition, compliance with new and possibly inconsistent regulations for different territories could be costly, delay or prevent the release of our products in those territories.

We are exposed to seasonality in the sale of our retail products.

Historically, we have seen a high degree of seasonality in our business and financial results due to the introduction of seasonal video game updates. For example, we have typically experienced higher levels of consumer demand occurring during and around the launch of the seasonal annual update of a racing series product, the overall start of the racing season, and the calendar year-end holiday buying season. Receivables and credit risk are likewise higher during these periods, as retailers increase their purchases of our products in anticipation of increased demand. Delays in development, approvals or manufacturing could affect the timing of the release of products, causing us to miss key selling periods, which could negatively impact our business.

Our retail products, online gaming platform and games offered through our gaming platform may contain defects.

Our retail products, online gaming platform and the games offered through our gaming platform are extremely complex and are difficult to develop and distribute. We have quality controls in place to detect defects in our retail products and gaming platform before they are released. Nonetheless, these quality controls are subject to human error, overriding, and resource or technical constraints. Further, we have not undertaken independent third-party testing, verification or analysis of our gaming platform and associated systems and controls. Therefore, our products, gaming platform and quality controls and the preventative measures we have implemented have not, and in the future may not, be effective in detecting all defects in our products and gaming platform. In the event a significant defect in our retail products, gaming platform and associated systems and controls is realized, we could be required to offer refunds, suspend the availability of our esports events and other gameplay, or expend significant resources to cure the defect, each of which could significantly harm our business and operating results.

We may be held liable for information or content displayed on, retrieved from or linked to our gaming platform, or distributed to our users.

Our interactive live streaming platform enables gamers to exchange information and engage in various other online activities. Although we require our gamers to register under their real names, we do not require user identifications used and displayed during gameplay to contain any real-name information, and hence we are unable to verify the sources of all the information posted by our gamers. In addition, because a majority of the communications on our online and in- person gaming platform is conducted in real time, we are unable to examine the content generated by gamers before it is posted or streamed. Therefore, it is possible that gamers may engage in illegal, obscene or incendiary conversations or activities, including publishing of inappropriate or illegal content. If any content on our platform is deemed illegal, obscene or incendiary, or if appropriate licenses and third-party consents have not been obtained, claims may be brought against us for defamation, libel, negligence, copyright, patent or trademark infringement, other unlawful activities or other theories and claims based on the nature and content of the information delivered on or otherwise accessed through our platform. Moreover, the costs of compliance may continue to increase when more content is made available on our platform as a result of our growing base of gamers, which may adversely affect our results of operations.

Additionally, we currently generate, and intend to generate in the future, revenue through offering advertising within certain of our franchises. The content of in-game advertisements is generally created and delivered by third-party advertisers without our pre-approval, and, as such, objectionable content may be published in our games by these advertisers. This objectionable third party-created content may expose us to regulatory action or claims related to content, or otherwise negatively impact our business.

We may experience security breaches and cyber threats.

We continually face cyber risks and threats that seek to damage, disrupt or gain access to our networks and our gaming platform, supporting infrastructure, intellectual property and other assets. In addition, we rely on technological infrastructure, including third-party cloud hosting and broadband, provided by third-party business partners to support the in-person and online functionality of our gaming platform. These business partners are also subject to cyber risks and threats. Such cyber risks and threats may be difficult to detect, and the techniques that may be used to obtain unauthorized access or disable, degrade, exploit or sabotage our networks and gaming platform change frequently and often are not detected. Our systems and processes to guard against cyber risks and to help protect our data and systems, and the systems and processes of our third-party business partners, may not be adequate. Any failure to prevent or mitigate security breaches or cyber risks, or respond adequately to a security breach or cyber risk, could result in interruptions to our gaming platform, degrade the gamer experience, cause gamers to lose confidence in our gaming platform and cease utilizing it, as well as significant legal and financial exposure. This could harm our business and reputation, disrupt our relationships with partners and diminish our competitive position.

Our business could be adversely affected if our data privacy and security practices are inadequate, or are perceived as being inadequate, to prevent data breaches, or under the applicable data privacy and security laws generally.

In the course of our business, we may collect, process, store and use gamer and other information, including personally identifiable information, passwords and credit card information. Our security controls, policies and practices may not be able to prevent the improper or unauthorized access, acquisition or disclosure of such information. The unauthorized access, acquisition or disclosure of this information, or a perception that we do not adequately secure this information, could result in legal liability, costly remedial measures, governmental and regulatory investigations, harm our profitability and reputation and cause our financial results to be materially affected. In addition, third-party vendors and business partners receive access to information that we collect. These vendors and business partners may not prevent data security breaches with respect to the information we provide them or fully enforce our policies, contractual obligations and disclosures regarding the collection, use, storage, transfer and retention of personal data. A data security breach of one of our vendors or business partners could cause reputational harm to them and/or negatively impact our credibility to our gamer community.

We depend on servers and Internet bandwidth to operate our games and digital services with online features. If we were to lose server capacity or lack sufficient Internet bandwidth for any reason, our business could suffer.

We rely on data servers, including those owned or controlled by third parties, to enable our customers to download our games and other downloadable content, to access our online gaming platform, and to operate other products with online functionality. Events such as limited hardware failure, any broad-based catastrophic server malfunction, a significant intrusion by hackers that circumvents security measures, or a failure of disaster recovery services would likely interrupt the functionality of our games with online services and could result in a loss of sales for games and related services. An extended interruption of service could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. See “—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—A significant disruption in service on our website or platforms could damage our reputation and result in a loss of traffic and visitors, which could harm our business, brand, operating results and financial condition” for additional information.

If we underestimate the amount of server capacity our business requires or if our business were to grow more quickly than expected, our consumers may experience service problems, such as slow or interrupted gaming access. Insufficient server capacity may result in decreased sales, a loss of our consumer base and adverse consequences to our reputation. Conversely, if we overestimate the amount of server capacity required by our business, we may incur additional operating costs.

Because of the importance of our online business to our revenues and results of operations, our ability to access adequate Internet bandwidth and online computational resources to support our business is critical. If the price of either such resource increases, we may not be able to increase our prices or subscriber levels to compensate for such costs, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.

A significant disruption in service on our website or platforms could damage our reputation and result in a loss of traffic and visitors, which could harm our business, brand, operating results and financial condition.

Our brands, reputation, and ability to attract gamers or visitors depend on the reliable performance of our games, website and the supporting systems, technology and infrastructure. We may experience significant interruptions with our systems in the future. Interruptions in these systems, whether due to system failures, programming or configuration errors, computer viruses, or physical or electronic break-ins, could affect the availability of our inventory on our website and prevent or inhibit the ability of customers to access our website. Problems with the reliability or security of our systems could harm our reputation, result in a loss of customers and result in additional costs.

Substantially all of the communications, network and computer hardware used to operate our websites are located at co-location facilities. Although we have multiple locations, our systems are not fully redundant. In addition, we do not own or control the operation of these facilities. Our systems and operations are vulnerable to damage or interruption from fire, flood, power loss, telecommunications failure, terrorist attacks, acts of war, electronic and physical break-ins, computer viruses, earthquakes, and similar events. The occurrence of any of these events could damage our systems and hardware or could cause them to fail.

Problems faced by our third-party web hosting providers could adversely affect the experience of our customers. For example, our third-party web hosting providers could close their facilities without adequate notice. Any financial difficulties, up to and including bankruptcy, faced by our third-party web hosting providers or any of the service providers with whom they contract may have negative effects on our business, the nature and extent of which are difficult to predict. If our third-party web hosting providers are unable to keep up with our growing capacity needs, our business could be harmed.

Our business partners may be unable to honor their obligations to us or their actions may put us at risk.

We rely on various business partners, including third-party service providers, vendors, licensing partners, development partners, and licensees in many areas of our business. Their actions may put our business and our reputation and brand at risk. For example, we may have disputes with our business partners that may impact our business and/or financial results. In many cases, our business partners may be given access to sensitive and proprietary information in order to provide services and support to our teams, and they may misappropriate our information and engage in unauthorized use of it. In addition, the failure of these third parties to provide adequate services and technologies, or the failure of the third parties to adequately maintain or update their services and technologies, could result in a disruption to our business operations. Further, disruptions in the financial markets, economic downturns, poor business decisions, insolvency, or reputational harm may adversely affect our business partners, and they may not be able to continue honoring their obligations to us or we may cease our arrangements with them. Alternative arrangements and services may not be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, or we may experience business interruptions upon a transition to an alternative partner or vendor. If we lose one or more significant business partners, including due to their insolvency or business failure, our business could be harmed and our financial results could be materially affected.

Our efforts to expand into new products and services may subject us to additional risks.

We are exploring ways to capitalize on new trends to diversify our product mix, reduce our operating risks, and increase our revenue. There are risks and uncertainties associated with these efforts, particularly in instances where the markets are not fully developed. There is no assurance that we will be able to attract a sufficiently large number of customers or recover costs incurred in developing and marketing any of these new products or services. For example, we may offer games that do not attract sufficient purchases of virtual currency, which may cause our investments to fail to realize the expected benefits. External factors, such as competitive alternatives and shifting market preferences, may also have an impact on the successful implementation of any new products or services. Failure to successfully manage these risks in the development and implementation of new products or services could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

Failure to adequately protect our intellectual property, technology and confidential information could harm our business and operating results.

Our business depends on our intellectual property, technology and confidential information, the protection of which is crucial to the success of our business. We rely on a combination of patent, trademark, trade secret and copyright law and contractual restrictions to protect our intellectual property, technology and confidential information. In addition, we attempt to protect our intellectual property, technology and confidential information by requiring certain of our employees and consultants to enter into confidentiality and assignment of inventions agreements and certain third parties to enter into nondisclosure agreements. These agreements may not effectively grant all necessary rights to any inventions that may have been developed by the employees and consultants. In addition, these agreements may not effectively prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of our confidential information, intellectual property or technology and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure of our confidential information, intellectual property, or technology. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our website features, software and functionality or obtain and use information that we consider to be proprietary. Changes in the law or adverse court rulings may also negatively affect our ability to prevent others from using our technology.

We currently lease or hold rights to certain domain names associated with our business. The regulation of domain names in the United States is subject to change. Regulatory bodies could establish additional top-level domains, appoint additional domain name registrars, or modify the requirements for holding domain names. As a result, we may not be able to acquire or maintain all domain names that are otherwise important for our business.

The costs involved in enforcement of our intellectual property rights could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We pursue the registration of our copyrights, trademarks, service marks, domain names, and patents in the U.S. and in certain locations outside the U.S. This process can be expensive and time-consuming, may not always be successful depending on local laws or other circumstances, and we also may choose not to pursue registrations in every location depending on the nature of the project to which the intellectual property rights pertain. We may, over time, increase our investments in protecting our creative works. Enforcement of our intellectual property rights to certain trademarks and service marks, such as NASCAR, the BTCC, INDYCAR and/or Le Mans, will require reliance on enforcement efforts of third parties.

Litigation may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property rights, protect our trade secrets or determine the validity and scope of proprietary rights claimed by others. Any litigation of this nature, regardless of outcome or merit, could result in substantial costs, adverse publicity, and diversion of management and technical resources, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. If we fail to maintain, protect and enhance our intellectual property rights, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be harmed.

We may be subject to claims of infringement of third-party intellectual property rights.

From time to time, third parties may claim that we have infringed their intellectual property rights. For example, patent holding companies may assert patent claims against us in which they seek to monetize patents they have purchased or otherwise obtained. Although we take steps to avoid knowingly violating the intellectual property rights of others, it is possible that third parties still may claim infringement.

Existing or future infringement claims against us, whether valid or not, may be expensive to defend and divert the attention of our employees from business operations. Such claims or litigation could require us to pay damages, royalties, legal fees and other costs. We also could be required to stop offering, distributing or supporting our products, our gaming platform or other features or services, including esports events, which incorporate the affected intellectual property rights, redesign products, features or services to avoid infringement, or obtain a license, all of which could be costly and harm our business.

In addition, many patents have been issued that may apply to potential new modes of delivering, playing or monetizing interactive entertainment software products and services, such as those offered on our gaming platform or that we would like to offer in the future. We may discover that future opportunities to provide new and innovative modes of game play and game delivery to gamers may be precluded by existing patents that we are unable to license on reasonable terms, or at all.

Our technology, content, and brands are subject to the threat of piracy, unauthorized copying and other forms of intellectual property infringement.

We regard our technology, content, and brands as proprietary. Piracy and other forms of unauthorized copying and use of our technology, content, and brands are persistent, and policing is difficult. Further, the laws of some countries in which our products are or may be distributed either do not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States or are poorly enforced. Legal protection of our rights may be ineffective in such countries. In addition, although we take steps to enforce and police our rights, factors such as the proliferation of technology designed to circumvent the protection measures used by our business partners or by us, the availability of broadband access to the Internet, the refusal of Internet service providers or platform holders to remove infringing content in certain instances, and the proliferation of online channels through which infringing product is distributed all may contribute to an expansion in unauthorized copying of our technology, content, and brands.

We use open source software in connection with certain of our games and services, which may pose particular risks to our proprietary software, products, and services in a manner that could have a negative impact on our business.

We use open source software in our platform and expect to use open source software in the future. The term of various open source licenses has not been interpreted by United States courts, and there is a risk that such licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to market our software and services. By the terms of certain open source licenses, we could be required to release the source code of our proprietary software, and to make our proprietary software available under open source licenses, if we combine our proprietary software with open source software in a certain manner. In the event that portions of our proprietary software are determined to be subject to an open source license, we could be required to publicly release the affected portions of our source code, or to re-engineer all or a portion of our technologies or otherwise be limited in the licensing of our technologies, each of which could reduce or eliminate the value of our technologies and services. In addition to risks related to license requirements, usage of open source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the origin of the software. Many of the risks associated with usage of open source software cannot be eliminated and could negatively affect our business and operating results.

We rely on third-party technology to complete critical business functions. If that technology becomes unavailable or fails to adequately serve our needs and we cannot find alternatives, it may negatively impact our operating results.

We rely on third-party technology for certain of our critical business functions, including game engines such as Unreal and Unity™, among others, as well as our back-office tools and technologies, such as enterprise resource planning, finance, development and analytics tracking systems. If these technologies fail, or otherwise become unavailable, or we cannot maintain our relationships with the technology providers and we cannot find suitable alternatives, our financial condition and operating results may be adversely affected.

Our international operations are subject to increased challenges and risks.

Attracting players in international markets is a critical element of our business strategy. An important part of targeting international markets is developing offerings that are localized and customized for the players in those markets. Additionally, we currently have operations in the United Kingdom, Republic of Georgia, Australia, and the Netherlands and may seek to further expand our international operations. Our ability to expand our business and to attract talented employees and players in an increasing number of international markets will require considerable management attention and resources and is subject to the particular challenges of supporting a rapidly growing business in an environment of multiple languages, cultures, customs, legal systems, alternative dispute systems, regulatory systems and commercial infrastructures. The success and profitability, as well as the expansion, of our international operations are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside of our control, such as:

In February 2022, Russian forces launched significant military actions against Ukraine, and sustained conflict and disruption in the region remains ongoing. We have no way to predict the progress or outcome of the current situation in Ukraine, as the conflict and governmental reactions are rapidly developing and beyond our control. Potential impacts related to the conflict include further market disruptions, including significant volatility in commodity prices, credit and capital markets, supply chain and logistics disruptions, adverse global economic conditions resulting from escalating geopolitical tensions, volatility and fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates and interest rates, inflationary pressures on raw materials and heightened cybersecurity threats. Additionally, in September 2022, we transitioned from using development staff in Russia to using development staff in other countries, including the Republic of Georgia, for game development. Any technical, operational or other difficulties related to the transition away from using Russian development staff could result in, among other things, increased costs, disruptions to our operations and delays in the release of our game titles. The termination of the employment arrangements with our Russian development staff could also cause us to incur certain liabilities and severance obligations under local labor regulations, which may include payment of up to three months’ salary for each staff member terminated. Any of the foregoing could adversely impact our business, financial condition, liquidity and/or results of operations in various manners.

We have currency exposure arising from both sales and purchases denominated in foreign currencies, including intercompany transactions outside the United States. In addition, some currencies may be subject to limitations on conversion into other currencies, which can limit the ability to otherwise react to rapid foreign currency devaluations. We cannot predict with precision the effect of future exchange-rate fluctuations, and significant rate fluctuations could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If we are unable to manage the complexity of our global operations successfully, our business, financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected. Additionally, our ability to successfully gain market acceptance in any particular market is uncertain, and the distraction of our senior management team could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The exit by the United Kingdom from the European Union could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The United Kingdom left the European Union on January 31, 2020 (commonly referred to as “Brexit”) and entered into a transition period in which the United Kingdom and the European Union were negotiating their future relationship, including the terms of trade between the United Kingdom and the European Union. On December 24, 2020, an agreement was reached between the United Kingdom and the European Union in relation to their future relationship in certain areas, which included a new trade and cooperation agreement relating principally to the free trade in goods (the “Trade and Cooperation Agreement”). While the Trade and Cooperation Agreement provides some clarity with respect to the free trade in goods between the United Kingdom and the European Union, there remain uncertainties related to the stability and effects of the new relationship.

The announcement of Brexit caused (and the post-transition period relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union is expected to cause in the future) significant volatility in global stock markets and significant fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, which will affect our financial results as we report in U.S. dollars. The announcement of Brexit also created (and the post-transition period relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union may create in the future) global economic uncertainty, which may cause our customers to reduce the amount of money they spend on our games and products. The post-transition period relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union could cause disruptions to and create uncertainty surrounding our business, including affecting our United Kingdom operations and relationships with existing and future customers and players, suppliers, business partners and employees. Any of these effects of Brexit, and others we cannot anticipate, could harm our business, financial condition and/or results of operations.

Catastrophic events may disrupt our business.

Natural disasters, cyber-incidents, weather events, wildfires, power disruptions, telecommunications failures, public health outbreaks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, failed upgrades of existing systems or migrations to new systems, acts of terrorism, acts of war, including the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, geopolitical and social turmoil or other events could cause outages, disruptions and/or degradations of our infrastructure, including our or our partners’ information technology and network systems, a failure in our ability to conduct normal business operations, or the closure of public spaces in which players engage with our games and services. The health and safety of our employees, suppliers, business partners and others could also be affected, which may prevent us from executing our business strategies or cause a decrease in consumer demand for our products and services. System redundancy may be ineffective and our disaster recovery and business continuity planning may not be sufficient for all eventualities. Such failures, disruptions, closures, or an inability to conduct normal business operations could also prevent access to our products, services or online platforms selling our products and services, cause delays or interruptions in our product or live services offerings, allow breaches of data security or result in the loss of critical data. For example, several of our key locations have experienced temporary closures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, throughout the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, several retailers experienced, reduced operating hours and/or other restrictions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which negatively impacted the sales of our products from such retailers. An event that results in the disruption or degradation of any of our critical business functions or information technology systems and harms our ability to conduct normal business operations or causes a decrease in consumer demand for our products and services could materially impact our reputation and brand, financial condition and operating results.

Risks Related to Our Relationship with Motorsport Network

Motorsport Network controls more than a majority of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock and therefore it has the ability to exert significant control over the direction of our business, which could prevent other stockholders from influencing significant decisions regarding our business plans and other matters.

Motorsport Network currently owns all of the shares of our Class B common stock and 1,480,384 shares of our Class A common stock, which together represents approximately 87.44% of the combined voting power of both classes of our common stock as of March 24, 2023. Our Class B common stock has ten times the voting power of our Class A common stock. As long as Motorsport Network continues to control a majority of the voting power of our outstanding common stock, it will generally be able to determine the outcome of all corporate actions requiring stockholder approval, including the election and removal of directors. Even if Motorsport Network were to control less than a majority of the voting power of our outstanding common stock, it may be able to influence the outcome of such corporate actions so long as it owns a significant portion of our common stock. In the event Motorsport Network or its affiliates relinquish beneficial ownership of any of the MSN Initial Class A Shares at any time, one share of Class B common stock held by Motorsport Network will be cancelled for each such MSN Initial Class A Share no longer beneficially owned by Motorsport Network or its affiliates. If, however, Motorsport Network does not dispose of its MSN Initial Class A Shares, it could remain our controlling stockholder for an extended period of time or indefinitely.

Motorsport Network’s interests may not be the same as, or may conflict with, the interests of our other stockholders. Moreover, Mike Zoi, who is the manager of Motorsport Network and has sole voting and dispositive power with respect to the shares of our common stock held by Motorsport Network, may also have interests that are not the same as, or may conflict with, the interests of our other stockholders. Holders of our Class A common stock will not be able to affect the outcome of any stockholder vote while Motorsport Network controls the majority of the voting power of our outstanding common stock. As a result, Motorsport Network will be able to control, directly or indirectly and subject to applicable law, all matters affecting us, including:

Because Motorsport Network’s interests may differ from ours or from those of our other stockholders, actions that Motorsport Network takes with respect to us, as our controlling stockholder, may not be favorable to us or our other stockholders, including holders of our Class A common stock.

If we are no longer controlled by or affiliated with Motorsport Network, we may be unable to continue to benefit from that relationship, which may adversely affect our operations and have a material adverse effect on us and our financial performance, financial condition, liquidity and/or cash flows.

Motorsport Network is a one of the leading global motorsport and automotive data-driven digital platforms that owns and operates a unique collection of digital media motorsport and automotive brands. We rely, in part, on Motorsport Network to provide digital access to this audience to market, communicate and engage with users regarding our product offerings and services. Pursuant to a promotion agreement we entered into with Motorsport Network in August 2018, Motorsport Network provides us with exclusive promotion services consisting of the use of its and its affiliates’ various media platforms to promote our business, organizations, products and services in the racing video game market and related esports activities. The promotion agreement will remain in effect until such date that Motorsport Network no longer holds at least 20% of the voting interest in Motorsport Games. If this occurs, we cannot assure you that we will continue to have access to Motorsport Network’s digital audience in the future. In the event that we no longer have access to Motorsport Network’s digital audience, our business, results of operations and financial conditions could be adversely affected.

If Motorsport Network sells a controlling interest in our Company to a third party in a private transaction, you may not realize any change-of-control premium on shares of our Class A common stock. Further, we may become subject to the control of a presently unknown third party in such instance or in the event Motorsport Network pledges a controlling interest in our Company that is foreclosed upon.

Motorsport Network has the ability, should it choose to do so, to sell some or all of its shares of our Class A common stock in a privately negotiated transaction, which, if sufficient in size, could result in a change of control of our Company. The ability of Motorsport Network to privately sell its shares of our Class A common stock, with no requirement for a concurrent offer to be made to acquire all of the outstanding shares of our Class A common stock, could prevent you from realizing any change-of-control premium on your shares of our Class A common stock that may otherwise accrue to Motorsport Network on its private sale of our Class A common stock. Additionally, if Motorsport Network either privately sells a controlling interest in our Company, or pledges such shares in the future and secured parties foreclose on the shares, then we may become subject to the control of a presently unknown third party. Such third party may have conflicts of interest with those of other stockholders. In addition, if Motorsport Network sells a controlling interest in our Company to a third party, any outstanding indebtedness may be subject to acceleration and our commercial agreements and relationships could be impacted, all of which may adversely affect our ability to run our business as described herein and may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

We are a “controlled company” within the meaning of the NASDAQ rules and, as a result, qualify for and may rely on exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements of NASDAQ. Our stockholders will not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of other companies that are subject to such requirements.

Motorsport Network currently controls a majority of the voting power of our outstanding common stock. As a result, we are a “controlled company” within the meaning of the NASDAQ Listing Rules. Under these rules, a listed company of which more than 50% of the voting power is held by an individual, group or another company is a “controlled company” and may elect not to comply with certain corporate governance requirements, including, but not limited to:

While Motorsport Network controls a majority of the voting power of our outstanding common stock, we may decide in the future to avail ourselves of these controlled company exemptions in accordance with the NASDAQ Listing Rules. Accordingly, our stockholders will not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the corporate governance requirements of NASDAQ. Additionally, our status as a controlled company and our reliance on NASDAQ’s controlled company exemptions could make our Class A common stock less attractive to some investors or otherwise harm our stock price.

Motorsport Network’s competitive position in certain markets may constrain our ability to build and maintain certain partnerships or relationships in the motorsport industry.

We do and may partner in the future with companies that compete with Motorsport Network in certain markets relating to the motorsport industry. Motorsport Network’s control over us may affect our ability to effectively build and maintain our relationships with these companies. For example, these companies may favor our competitors over us due to our relationship with Motorsport Network and to avoid indirectly supporting Motorsport Network.

Our inability to resolve in a manner favorable to us any potential conflicts or disputes that arise between us and Motorsport Network or its subsidiaries with respect to our past and ongoing relationships may adversely affect our business and prospects.

Potential conflicts or disputes may arise between Motorsport Network or its subsidiaries and us in a number of areas relating to our past or ongoing relationships, including:

The resolution of any potential conflicts or disputes between us and Motorsport Network or its subsidiaries over these or other matters may be less favorable to us than the resolution we might achieve if we were dealing with an unaffiliated party.

Risks Related to Our Company

Our limited operating history makes it difficult to evaluate our current business and future prospects, and we may not be able to effectively grow our business or implement our business strategies.

Motorsports Games was formed and started operating in August 2018 in connection with the acquisition by Motorsport Games of a controlling interest in 704Games. As such, Motorsports Games does not have a long history operating as a commercial company. Due to this and other factors, our operating results are not predictable, and our historical results may not be indicative of our future results. We believe that our ability to grow our business will depend on many risks and uncertainties, including our ability to:

There can be no assurance that we will meet these objectives. Addressing these risks and uncertainties will require significant capital expenditures and allocation of valuable management and employee resources. Our organizational structure is becoming more complex as we add staff, and as a result, we will need to improve our operational, financial and management controls as well as our reporting systems and procedures. We will require significant capital expenditures and the allocation of valuable management resources to grow and change in these areas without undermining our corporate culture. If we cannot manage our growth effectively, our business could be harmed, and our results of operations and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.

We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. If we are unable to remediate these material weaknesses, or if we identify additional material weaknesses in the future, we may not be able to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations, which may adversely affect our business and the trading price of our Class A common stock.

Prior to our IPO, we were a private company and had limited accounting and financial reporting personnel and other resources with which to address our internal controls and procedures. In connection with the audit of our consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2022, we identified certain material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected and corrected on a timely basis.

The material weaknesses we identified relate to (i) the documentation of significant accounting positions, estimates and conclusions that were not contemporaneously formalized and reviewed independently of the preparer, (ii) the segregation of duties and (iii) the failure to design and maintain effective monitoring procedures and controls to evaluate and monitor the effectiveness of our individual control activities. We have taken steps toward remediating these material weaknesses, which to date have included: (1) the hiring of additional qualified finance and accounting personnel, including the hiring of a new Chief Financial Officer with SEC reporting experience; (2) the implementation of formal policies, procedures and controls, training on standards of documentary evidence, as well as implementation of controls designed to ensure the reliability of critical spreadsheets and system generated reports from the enterprise resource planning system that the Company implemented in 2020; and (3) the documenting and evaluating of business processes and controls, as well as progressing towards readiness to test controls for operating effectiveness.

If we are unable to successfully remediate our existing or any future material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, or identify any additional material weaknesses, the accuracy and timing of our financial reporting may be adversely affected, we may be unable to maintain compliance with securities law requirements regarding timely filing of periodic reports and applicable listing requirements, investors may lose confidence in our financial reporting, and the share price of our Class A common stock may decline as a result. In addition, we could become subject to investigations by Nasdaq, the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which could require additional financial and management resources. See Part II, Item 9A – “Controls and Procedures – Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting” of this Report for further information on material weaknesses and our remediation plans.

We are an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company, and we cannot be certain if the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to us will make our Class A common stock less attractive to investors.

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (the “JOBS Act”), and we expect to take advantage of certain exemptions and relief from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies. In particular, while we are an emerging growth company, we will not be required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”); we will be exempt from any rules that could be adopted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board requiring mandatory audit firm rotations or a supplement to the auditor’s report on financial statements; we will be subject to reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements; and we will not be required to hold nonbinding advisory votes on executive compensation or stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved.

In addition, while we are an emerging growth company, we can take advantage of an extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards. This allows an emerging growth company to delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We have elected to take advantage of this extended transition period and, as a result, our operating results and financial statements may not be comparable to the operating results and financial statements of companies that have adopted the new or revised accounting standards.

We may remain an emerging growth company until the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the completion of our IPO, though we may cease to be an emerging growth company earlier under certain circumstances, including if (i) we have $1.07 billion or more in annual revenue in any fiscal year, (ii) we become a “large accelerated filer,” as defined in Rule 12b-2 under the Exchange Act; or (iii) we issue more than $1.0 billion of non- convertible debt over a three-year period.

We are also a “smaller reporting company” as defined in the Exchange Act. We may continue to be a smaller reporting company even after we are no longer an emerging growth company. We may take advantage of certain of the scaled disclosures available to smaller reporting companies and will be able to take advantage of these scaled disclosures for so long as our voting and non-voting common stock held by non-affiliates is less than $250 million measured on the last business day of our second fiscal quarter, or our annual revenue is less than $100 million during the most recently completed fiscal year and our voting and non-voting common stock held by non-affiliates is less than $700 million measured on the last business day of our second fiscal quarter. Similar to emerging growth companies, smaller reporting companies that are non-accelerated filers are exempt from the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

We cannot predict if investors will find our Class A common stock less attractive if we choose to rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our Class A common stock less attractive as a result of any choices to reduce future disclosure, there may be a less active trading market for our Class A common stock and our stock price may be more volatile.

We may acquire other companies, technologies, or assets, which could divert our management’s attention, result in additional dilution to our stockholders and otherwise disrupt our operations and harm our operating results.

Our success will depend, in part, on our ability to grow our business in response to the demands of consumers and other constituents within the gaming industry and competitive pressures. In some circumstances, we may decide to grow through the acquisition of complementary businesses, technologies, and assets rather than through internal development. The identification of suitable acquisition candidates can be difficult, time-consuming, and costly, and we may not be able to successfully complete identified acquisitions. The risks we face in connection with acquisitions include:

Our failure to address these risks or other problems encountered in connection with our past or future acquisitions and investments could cause us to fail to realize the anticipated benefits of these acquisitions or investments and to incur unanticipated liabilities and otherwise harm our business. Future acquisitions could also result in dilutive issuances of our equity securities, the incurrence of debt, contingent liabilities, amortization expenses, or the write-off of goodwill, any of which could harm our financial condition. Also, the anticipated benefits of any acquisitions may not materialize. Any of these risks, if realized, could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

We may be subject to various legal proceedings, claims, litigation, governmental investigations or inquiries and other disputes from time to time. If the outcomes of any of these actions are adverse to us, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We may be subject to various legal proceedings, claims, litigation, governmental investigations or inquiries and other disputes from time to time, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Claims or disputes arising out of actual or alleged violations of law could be asserted against us by individuals, either individually or through class actions, by governmental entities in civil or criminal investigations and proceedings or by other parties, including holders of non-controlling interests in certain of our subsidiaries. Any claims made against us could be asserted under a variety of laws, including but not limited to, contract or corporate law, consumer finance laws, consumer protection laws, intellectual property laws, privacy laws, labor and employment laws, securities laws and employee benefit laws. These actions or disputes, whether meritorious or not, could expose us to adverse publicity through various media channels and to substantial monetary damages or other nonmonetary components and legal defense costs, injunctive relief or other equitable remedies and criminal and civil fines and penalties, including but not limited to suspension or revocation of licenses to conduct business. For additional information, see “Legal Proceedings” in Part I, Item 3 of this Report.

Unanticipated changes in effective tax rates or adverse outcomes resulting from examination of our income or other tax returns could adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.

We are currently subject to taxes in the United States and the United Kingdom. Our future effective tax rates could be subject to volatility or adversely affected by a number of factors, including:

In addition, we may be subject to audits of our income, sales and other transaction taxes in various jurisdictions. Outcomes from these audits could have an adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition.

We may not successfully manage the transitions associated with certain of our executive officers, which could have an adverse impact on us.

On September 9, 2022, Jonathan New notified us of his decision to resign from his role as our Chief Financial Officer, effective September 23, 2022. Effective March 20, 2023, we appointed Jason Potter to serve as our Chief Financial Officer. Prior to Mr. Potter’s appointment to the permanent Chief Financial Officer role, we had other individuals, including Dmitry Kozko, our Chief Executive Officer, serve in an Interim Chief Financial Officer capacity. Leadership transitions may be inherently difficult to manage, and an inadequate transition to a permanent Chief Financial Officer may cause disruption within the Company. In addition, our financial performance and ability to meet operational goals and strategic plans may be adversely impacted. This may also impact our ability to retain and hire other key members of management.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock

Substantial future sales of our Class A common stock, or the perception that such sales may occur, could depress the price of our Class A common stock.

A substantial number of shares of our Class A common stock are freely tradable without restriction under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), except for any shares of our Class A common stock that may be held or acquired by our directors, executive officers and other affiliates (as that term is defined in the Securities Act), including Motorsport Network, which generally may not be sold in the public market unless the sale is registered under the Securities Act or an exemption from registration is available.

Further, Motorsport Network has registration rights, subject to certain conditions, to require us to file registration statements to register the resale of 780,385 shares of our Class A common stock or to include such shares for resale in registration statements that we may file for ourselves or other stockholders. Accordingly, sales of substantial amounts of our Class A common stock in the public market, or the perception that these sales could occur, including sales by Motorsport Network, could adversely affect the price of our Class A common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional shares.

We have also filed a registration statement registering under the Securities Act the shares of our Class A common stock reserved for issuance under the Motorsport Games Inc. 2021 Equity Incentive Plan for the grants of equity-based awards to employees, directors and consultants. If these award recipients cause a large number of shares to be sold in the public market, such sales could also reduce the trading price of our Class A common stock and impede our ability to raise future capital.

Our certificate of incorporation has limitations on the liability of our directors, and we may have to indemnify our officers and directors in certain instances.

Our certificate of incorporation limits the liability of directors to the maximum extent permitted by Delaware law. Delaware law provides that directors of a corporation will not be personally liable for monetary damages for breach of their fiduciary duties as directors, except for liability for any:

These limitations of liability will not apply to liabilities arising under the federal or state securities laws and will not affect the availability of equitable remedies such as injunctive relief or rescission. Our corporate bylaws provide that we will indemnify our directors, officers and employees to the fullest extent permitted by law. Our bylaws also provide that we are obligated to advance expenses incurred by a director or officer in advance of the final disposition of any action or proceeding. We believe that these bylaw provisions are necessary to attract and retain qualified persons as directors and officers. The limitation of liability in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws may discourage stockholders from bringing a lawsuit against directors for a breach of their fiduciary duties. They may also reduce the likelihood of derivative litigation against directors and officers, even though an action, if successful, might provide a benefit to us and our stockholders. Our results of operations and financial condition may be harmed to the extent we pay the costs of settlement and damage awards against directors and officers pursuant to these indemnification provisions.

Certain provisions in our charter documents and Delaware law could limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our board of directors or current management and limit the market price of our Class A common stock.

Provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws may have the effect of delaying or preventing changes in our board of directors or management including, but not limited to: